The expansion of the charging infrastructure threatens to become a stumbling block on the road to electrification of German mobility. Corridors that provide charging stations throughout the country are supposed to serve as a bridging aid. The extent to which these offer a real opportunity for the rapid expansion of e-mobility is being drawn by the OpenADR Alliance. It was created to standardize the exchange of information for the management and billing of performance data and flexibilization of load distribution in a growing pool of decentralized energy resources.

With ambitious demands on itself and the economy, the German government finally wants to turn the tide in terms of the transport transition - more sustainably generated energies, more e-mobility, fewer emissions from the ecological problem child, that is, the transport sector. The declared goal is to cut emissions by around 48 % by 2030. The hopes for a realizable implementation lie, among other things, in the expansion of the charging infrastructure, above all to counteract range anxiety, which often deters people from buying an electric vehicle. But easy access to normal and fast-charging points in public areas also helps to increase the acceptance of electric vehicles. A nationwide charging infrastructure also promotes economic development in the form of new jobs and business areas in the field of e-mobility. While Germany is grappling with bureaucratic hurdles and a sleepy start to the era of e-mobility, it is worth looking beyond national borders in the search for new solutions. Pioneers like Tesla and other players in the USA, for example, have shown how charging corridors can act as a kind of kick-start to nationwide coverage with charging facilities (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment, EVSE). The idea behind this is to install a dense network of stations along a dedicated route that enables electric vehicles to travel long distances without the risk of being stranded on the road with an empty battery.

Since 2023, the concept is no longer a pipe dream in Germany either. In January, Aral opened the first charging corridor for electric trucks, equipping 600 km of the Rhine-Alpine route with charging stations - one of the busiest routes in Europe. With 300 kW of charging power, green electricity is available within 45 min for a range of up to 200 km. More than 20 vehicles can be charged in parallel at the safe and well-lit charging stations, which are primarily geared toward trucks but can also be used by passenger cars.

Although Germany is demonstrating its willingness to rely more heavily on renewable energies, after the last remaining nuclear power plants were shut down in 2023 and coal is to be phased out by 2038 at the latest, the supply of electricity will be problematic in the face of a simultaneous increase in demand for electricity.

Another cricital issue in the transport transition toward e-mobility is the expansion of the German charging infrastructure. According to the German Federal Network Agency, around 67,000 normal charging points and just under 13,000 fast-charging stations were available in January 2023 [1]. The target of one million charging points in Germany by 2030 is thus a long way off, given current progress, and therefore does not create the necessary incentives for a successful transformation. he high purchase costs of electric vehicles, the uncertain price of electricity and long waiting times are also keeping some from making the switch, and thus continue to stall the transport transition. However, with an easing of the economic and price situation, initial progress can be seen: According to ADAC, new registrations of electric vehicles in March 2023 increased by a full 23 % compared to the previous month [2]. The transport club still sees demand as unbroken - a great incentive for industry and business to invest more in the young market of electric mobility, to drive forward necessary innovations, and to provide concepts such as charging corridors not only for supply, but also to see them as an opportunity for new sales markets.

Good location sought

The most obvious challenge for sites supplying energy to e-mobility is the space required for the charging stations. Providers may have to buy additional space, and a large number of parties involved have to agree on planning and coordination - first and foremost energy suppliers, investors, cities, and municipalities. In bureaucratic Germany, this is a time-consuming task, which is reflected in the lengthy approval procedures.

The concept of charging corridors has the advantage that existing infrastructure can be used. For example, busy routes along highways and trunk roads are already equipped with a network of service stations and rest stops. With their already established presence, companies such as Autobahn Tank und Rast, Shell, Total, and Esso offer electric vehicle recharging at their distributed locations, in addition to Aral. Incentives to invest are not only provided by special subsidy programs from the German government, but a promising market is also opening up through the sale of electricity. Existing concepts, such as a highway rest stop, also benefit from charging stations, which lead to longer visiting hours while charging. Last but not least, involvement in expanding the infrastructure for electric vehicles is a powerful marketing lever that can lead to an image boost. At the Aral charging corridor, the 45-min charging time complies with the mandatory legal driver break for trucks.

It remains to be seen whether the German government's goal of having 15 million electric vehicles on the road as early as 2030 [3] can be met. However, with an increasing number of electric vehicles and the nationwide charging technology they require - whether private (through a Home Energy Management System, HEMS) or public (through a Building Energy Management System, BEMS) - cross-industry cooperation and secure standards are needed.

Networking standards in all directions

A nationwide network of freely accessible charging and fast-charging stations requires that drivers can charge their vehicles easily and safely, regardless of the manufacturer. If companies rely on silo solutions, however, Germany will resemble a patchwork of individual charging points in the future, each of which can only be accessed by small groups. To prevent this, numerous interest groups and organizations have already formed to promote and accelerate the development and introduction of urgently needed open standards. In addition to umbrella organizations such as Smart Energy Europe, the OpenADR Alliance, for example, is committed to open standards for load management automation and demand response programs, Figure 1. The OpenADR standard allows dynamic exchange of information between utilities and charging systems - about price changes as well as energy capacity. Utilities will increasingly rely on analyzing and managing energy demand in real time to ensure grid stability. Knowing who needs how much power, when and where, makes it feasible to expand charging infrastructure and establish corridors - because it is important to manage demand and supply at peak times. Once network operators have identified these critical times, they can respond with countermeasures and incentives. For example, regulation through different tariffs and financial compensation for private operators of charging stations are conceivable if less electricity is available at peak times.

Figure 1
figure 1

Fully automated information exchange for "smart" charging between power generation/load management, supply/demand response, and billing/customer support (© OpenADR Alliance)

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The management of interconnected charging points also requires communication that has open standards. For example, premium members can charge at special rates or providers can adjust prices in real time.

The central factor of standardized solutions is also reflected in practical examples. For instance, ISO standard 15118 defines the data exchange between vehicle and charging station as a bidirectional communication interface. In addition to sending and receiving information such as battery status or charging power, the interface also supports authentication and billing of charging processes. With a view to infrastructure and the expansion of corridors, these standards are crucial after all, they guarantee that electric vehicles can charge regardless of the manufacturer of the charging station or the automobile.

To further promote interoperability between different systems, large ecosystems of technologies, protocols and integrations are needed. One example of the industry's efforts is the Open Vehicle Gateway Integration Platform (OVGIP), whose open architecture and standardized protocols enable companies to develop applications and functions that can be deployed across vehicles and platforms, Figure 2.

Figure 2
figure 2

Open platform OVGIP to provide the necessary standards for the expansion of e-mobility (© OpenADR Alliance)

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Transport Transition as teamwork

At the beginning of 2023, Mercedes-Benz announced its intention to set up its own global fast-charging network - and even if drivers of its own brand have advantages such as reserving charging stations, in general the offer is available to all vehicles. VW plans to initially create 4000 new charging points by the end of 2024 in a cooperation with the British petroleum company BP. More are to follow.

E-mobility pioneer Tesla was one of the first companies to set up its own charging infrastructure in the USA, and other players such as ChargePoint, Electrify America and manufacturers such as Daimler Truck followed suit. As a result, the country has a broad network of overlapping charging points to which different companies have contributed.

Such a decentralized approach is also conceivable in Germany and Europe. In closely networked Europe, with its open borders and high transit traffic, progress is being made, as the example of Ionity shows. The consortium, which includes BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and VW, is continuously building up charging points across Europe from Scandinavia to southern Europe and aims to offer a charging option every 150 to 200 km in the long term. Individual German traffic arteries benefit directly - but for a successful German transport transition, the entire country must learn from such projects. To achieve this, other players need to be brought on board - from car manufacturers and oil companies to electricity providers.

Charging corridors as a gamechanger

In addition to improving the supply of electric vehicles, charging corridors have important benefits for the overall regulation of the power grid, as the Electrify America project has already demonstrated: At more than 140 locations in the USA, fast-charging points received their own energy storage, giving utilities additional leeway in stabilizing the grid. With intelligent control, operators can store surplus energy and feed it back in when needed, for example, to compensate for short-term fluctuations or meet increased demand at peak times. But they can also counteract erratic power generation from renewables in this way.

Charging corridors can accelerate the huge project of the transport transition, as examples from countries such as the USA show. In Germany, too, this will require not only increased political support but also, above all, investment from the private sector and close cooperation between all stakeholders.

References

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    Bundesnetzagentur (ed.): Elektromobilität. Öffentliche Ladeinfrastruktur. Online: https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/DE/Fachthemen/ElektrizitaetundGas/ E-Mobilitaet/start.html, access: May 18, 2023

  2. [2]

    ADAC (ed.): Pkw-Neuzulassungen April 2023. E-Autos und Opel Corsa gewinnen. Online: https://www.adac.de/news/neuzulassungen-kba/, access: May 18, 2023

  3. [3]

    Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung (ed.): Nicht weniger fortbewegen, sondern anders. 23. Dezember 2022. Online: https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/schwerpunkte/klimaschutz/eenergie-und-mobilitaet/nachhaltige-mobilitaet-2044132, access: September 1, 2023