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Charging Station Queues for Electric Cars: Control Demand through Pricing Mechanism?
Long waiting times at charging stations for electric cars? The Handelsblatt reported on this on 02.09.2024. In the summer, many people who were on the road on Germany’s motorways experienced the annoyance of occupied fast chargers. At the same time, there is talk of overcapacity of charging stations in Germany. How does this fit together, Catania Krapp from Handelsblatt asked in her article titled “Why do electric car holidaymakers often wait for free fast chargers?”
Charging station provider Ionity: Demand lags behind
Torsten Kiedel, CFO at the fast charging station provider Ionity, contradicts in the report the accusation that the charging station utilization is too high and explains that the demand is currently rather lagging behind the expansion. Regardless of the expansion: the ratio ’15 electric cars to one charging point’ remains the same.
Charging stations for electric cars: it gets full at the beginning and end of the holidays, but also on Fridays and Sundays
For many holidaymakers, such queues would have meant hanging around in the car next to the fast chargers until someone else has finished charging, also to make sure that no other waiting driver pushes in, the newspaper writes. A charging stop of 20 minutes could thus already take twice as long. The report quotes Peter Wüstnienhaus, an expert on electromobility for many years. Especially at the beginning and end of the holidays, but also generally on Fridays and Sundays, the risk is high that the charging stations will be full, he says. He has already experienced having to wait at the A1 on Sunday evenings at 10 p.m. because all four charging points were occupied.
Pricing expert Prof. Riekhof: Control demand at charging stations through pricing mechanism
With regard to the defined goal that the number of electric cars should increase from currently 1.5 million to 15 million by 2030, the Handelsblatt asks whether the charging station infrastructure is prepared for this and how electric car drivers can avoid queues.
Prof. Dr. Hans-Christian Riekhof (UNICconsult Strategy Development) believes that the most important topic is not addressed in this exciting report, namely how demand can be controlled. His answer: through a pricing mechanism. “Do electric car drivers know the price difference between providers and the gap between fuel costs and the cost of electricity per 100 kilometers?”, asks the pricing specialist. “Do providers rely on Peek Load Pricing? Do prices change during the day, during the week or according to the seasons?” Unfortunately, you don’t find out about this. At least that’s how the oil companies do it. “It would be interesting to make a comparison here”, says Riekhof.
Photo: © Joenomias/pixabay.de
Setting the right prices for effective climate protection
In its edition of February 19, 2018, Handelsblatt reports that Germany’s largest companies are advocating that CO2 emissions should be subjected to a better and more comprehensive pricing mechanism.
Pricing expert Prof. Hans-Christian-Riekhof sees this as a remarkable initiative. “One would actually expect proposals to be made by the state on how to properly tax or price emissions. But this presupposes that the authorities are dealing with the creation of effective emissions markets. And by the way, agriculture as well as the transport and heat sectors should also be included in such markets,” says Riekhof.
The determination of appropriate prices lies with the markets
“It is one of the economic truisms that markets are a pretty efficient mechanism for determining appropriate prices. Monitoring the functionality of these markets is more a task for authorities. If market participants are now calling for the creation of more efficient markets, this call should not go unheard.”
