The German eMobility market is emerging as a highly competitive and advanced environment, with a well-established infrastructure and dominant domestic players.
For foreign companies seeking to enter this sector, the challenges extend beyond local competition to include technical and regulatory barriers that require a meticulously tailored strategy.
One of the main obstacles identified by industry players is the complex administrative process surrounding the installation and expansion of charging infrastructure.
Philipp Schockenhoff, Team Lead Sales Expansion Markets at gridX, emphasises that the German permitting system, particularly in the public sector, is slow and complicated.
“Bureaucracy is a key factor slowing the growth of new entrants, especially when it comes to obtaining the necessary authorisations to operate in public spaces,” he tells Mobility Portal Europe.
Furthermore, Dr. Christian Milan, CEO of M3E, underscores this point, highlighting Germany’s lengthy and complex procedures for construction project approvals, including building permits.
“Securing approval for a project can take considerable time, and, in some cases, proposals may be denied despite extensive and thorough planning,” he states.
He adds: “Engaging with all relevant stakeholders early in the planning process is therefore advisable to mitigate potential delays.”
Another significant challenge is grid connectivity.
With its network already saturated in many areas, Germany has found that the capacity of the existing infrastructure is often insufficient to meet the growing demand for electric vehicle (EVs) chargers.
“Expanding grid capacity is expensive and, in many cases, unavoidable,” Schockenhoff explains.
For charge point operators (CPOs), two main options arise: expanding capacity, which requires substantial investment, or load management, which optimises the use of available capacity.
However, the latter option is only viable to a certain extent.
Grid limitations can also result in stricter requirements from Distribution System Operators (DSOs).
These players, who manage the local infrastructure, impose restrictions on the maximum power that a CPO can use.
While necessary to prevent overloads, these limits pose an additional challenge for those looking to expand charging infrastructure.
M3E further elaborates on this issue, particularly for CPOs in rural regions, where initial grid expansion is often necessary.
“In urban and metropolitan areas, high network utilization frequently occurs, necessitating load management and energy optimization strategies,” Milan says.
As demand grows, technologies like intermediate storage and dynamic load management are increasingly essential to address these constraints.
In this context, Dr. Marco Möller, CEO of Pionix, identifies two crucial obstacles.
“Unreliable charging has replaced range anxiety as one of the biggest barriers for EV adoption. Today, the challenges are reliability and interoperability of charging stations,” he explains.
He notes that with countless combinations of vehicle software, “refuelling” stations, and cloud solutions, ensuring a seamless experience for users has become a technical labyrinth.
Furthermore, he suggests that the industry’s reliance on proprietary solutions complicates efforts to achieve a uniform implementation of EV charging standards.
“There is no solution that simply works for the end user anytime and anywhere,” he states.
“The open-source model has prevailed in many technological areas, for example on the internet or in the mobile phone sector,” he adds, hinting at a pathway for resolving interoperability issues in the country’s market.
Adding to these challenges are Germany’s numerous standards and evolving regulations, such as ISO 15118 and calibration laws, which must be adhered to by manufacturers and CPOs alike.
Christian Milan explains: “Legal requirements are continually evolving, with relevant laws and guidelines being frequently revised, optimized, and tightened, leading to planning uncertainties.”
The compliance burden can be substantial for new entrants, who must frequently update their systems to align with shifting regulations.
A significant challenge for CPOs is the limited availability of premium charging sites.
According to M3E, key hubs for charging infrastructure are often already occupied or controlled by other operators, and while initiatives like the “Deutschlandnetz” designate critical expansion sites, remaining areas may lack quality.
Nonetheless, as the share of EVs grows, the demand for public infrastructure rises, potentially increasing the appeal of secondary locations for new installations.
For new entrants, maintaining high standards of operation is critical.
The Deutschlandnetz project, which demands rapid response times for infrastructure issues along major highways, requires extensive investment in maintenance to meet these standards.
“If a problem cannot be resolved remotely within an hour, it is considered a serious failure,” Philipp Schockenhoff notes.
While Germany’s eMobility sector shows positive growth, the customer base remains relatively small compared to other markets like the Nordics, as M3E points out.
The smaller proportion of EVs in the total registered vehicle population limits the customer potential, posing challenges for widespread infrastructure adoption.
However, experts agree that continued investment and strategic partnerships can help tap into this market potential as EV adoption rises.
Pionix emphasizes the importance of collaboration within the eMobility ecosystem.
“Fundamental challenges such as acceptance, availability, and reliability can only be solved through comprehensive collaboration,” Dr. Marco Möller argues.
Such an approach fosters innovation across various stakeholders—CPOs, manufacturers, and network providers—accelerating solutions to common issues like standard conformity and infrastructure reliability.
Meanwhile, Mark Hellmann Regouby, CEO of ElectroFleet, acknowledges that the German market is appealing due to its energy openness and access to the liberalised market.
“It’s a liberalised energy market with excellent market tools and access, which makes Germany a strategic partner for energy trading,” he comments.
He adds: “We have been pleasantly surprised by the possibility of forming partnerships with local grid providers.”
However, the large number of local network operators—over 700 in total—complicates the situation.
“Each operator has different levels of network congestion and varying response times, which can result in a significantly different experience depending on the area,” the CEO explains.
