Public charging in Germany: Transition from the early adopter
market to the early mass market

If the ramp-up of electric mobility and, with it, a nationwide transition to climate-neutral
mobility are to succeed, a user-friendly and fully functioning charging infrastructure
ecosystem is important. Electric mobility has reached a significant scale in Germany:
around 2 million battery electric vehicles are now on German roads (as of 01/2026; source:
KBA). This progress not only marks the success of technological innovations and political
support measures but also represents a significant milestone in the transformation of the
mobility sector.

Alongside the increase in electric vehicles, the availability of charging infrastructure is also
developing dynamically. Along highways, main roads, and in urban areas at the roadside,
the number of publicly accessible charging points has risen to around 187,000 in Germany
(as of 12 January 2026; source: Bundesnetzagentur.de). Publicly accessible charging
infrastructure is complemented by private and semi‑private (non‑publicly accessible)
charging infrastructure at retail sites, parking facilities, workplaces and residential locations.
This diversity of charging infrastructure is essential to address different charging needs
and to ensure comprehensive coverage.

The German electric mobility market is entering a decisive phase for the successful transition
from early adopter to early mass market. The internally commissioned project “Charging
Infrastructure in the Mass Market” of the National Centre for Charging Infrastructure,
carried out by USCALE on the basis of the “Public Charging Study” of 2024, has once again
clearly shown that charging problems are not uncommon. Problems include, among other
things, difficulties in starting the charging transaction as well as interruptions during the
charging transaction. As electric mobility transitions into the mass market, requirements
for user-friendliness and, in particular, for the reliability of the charging infrastructure are
increasing. To build trust among new user groups and increase acceptance, charging
infrastructure in Germany must not only be widely available, but also technically reliable,
intuitive to use, and transparently accessible.

More than just uptime: Why user experience requires new
metrics

Technical availability (often referred to as “uptime”) has become an established indicator
for assessing reliability in the charging infrastructure industry. In European funding
programmes as well as in national regulations, target values of 97% to 99% uptime (source:
ChargeUp Europe – Understanding “Uptime” in the EV Charging Industry: Towards a
Common Methodology, 09/2024) are increasingly becoming standard.

Despite the widespread use of “uptime”, there is still no uniform, cross-country definition
or calculation logic for the uptime KPI. The methods used can vary depending on the
provider and system, making comparisons difficult and limiting its informative value.

Moreover, uptime focuses exclusively on the technical operational readiness of the charging
infrastructure. It does not take into account whether a charging attempt can actually be
carried out successfully from the user’s perspective. In certain cases, a charging station is
classified as fully available even though the charging transaction cannot be started, for
example due to interoperability issues between the electric vehicle, the charging station,
or the Charge Point Operator (CPO) backend system.

This discrepancy between technical availability and actual usability is not captured by the
uptime metric. An analysis of more than 20,000 in-field charging tests in Europe shows
that the success rate of charging sessions from a user perspective over the past 24 months
was only between 80% and 86% – significantly below the idealised value of 99% (source:
Power2Drive Europe Conference 2024, P3, Importance of Interoperability for Reliability of
Public High-Power Charging).

To comprehensively assess the actual user-friendliness and reliability of charging
infrastructure, a wider perspective is required. Beyond technical availability, the evaluation
must consider the entire user interaction at the charging station – from the successful
start to the successful completion of a charging session.