BERLIN — German officials confirmed this week that the country’s electric vehicle charging network is progressing nicely, apart from the minor issue that many of the chargers are not yet profitable, enough people are not using them, the hardware is getting outdated too quickly, and discount grocery stores are now selling electricity like it’s a seasonal bratwurst promotion.
“Everything is going according to plan,” said one transportation analyst, standing beside a 350 kW fast charger that cost roughly the same as a small medieval village and is currently being used by a guy named Klaus to top up his Polestar before it possibly leaves the U.S. market out of embarrassment.
The central problem, experts say, is that EV charging is somehow both urgently necessary and financially questionable — a rare business model typically reserved for newspapers, regional airlines, and streaming services with one good show.
For years, policymakers assumed that if they built enough chargers, EV adoption would follow. Unfortunately, charging companies assumed that if enough EVs were sold, chargers would become profitable. The result is a beautifully European standoff in which everyone is waiting for everyone else to go first, preferably after filling out seven forms and obtaining municipal permission to think about trenching.
Tesla, meanwhile, has been cited as an example of what happens when a company builds a charging network with one standard, one ecosystem, and the deeply unfair advantage of having an actual plan.
“It turns out making the charger work is good,” said one industry observer. “We had not fully modeled that variable.”
The situation is especially awkward for independent charging companies, which must decide whether to install many chargers in one excellent location or sprinkle chargers around like infrastructure confetti in places where EV drivers might one day exist.
“It’s a classic chicken-and-egg problem,” said a consultant. “Except the chicken costs €200,000, the egg needs 400 kilowatts, and Aldi just announced both are 27 cents with an app.”
Industry reports suggest that fast chargers need high daily electricity usage to become economically viable. Ionity, thanks to prime highway locations and high-speed chargers, appears to be doing better than many competitors. This has led analysts to conclude that the secret to success in EV charging is simple: be located exactly where everyone already wants to stop, have very fast equipment, receive backing from major automakers, and avoid being a small company trying to survive a price war against supermarkets.
Lidl recently entered the conversation by offering extremely cheap fast charging to users of its app, presumably so drivers can save €8 on electricity and then spend €47 inside on bread, mystery cheese, patio furniture, and a power drill they did not know they needed.
“This is not a charging business,” said one Lidl executive, loading six pallets of discounted yogurt into a strategic electrification roadmap. “This is a customer acquisition funnel with parking spaces.”
Automakers remain optimistic, noting that more public chargers will reduce range anxiety, which is the fear that your EV will run out of battery before reaching a charger, where you may then experience charger anxiety, payment anxiety, queue anxiety, plug compatibility anxiety, app download anxiety, and the quiet existential dread of realizing a grocery chain has a better energy strategy than half the mobility sector.
Still, experts say the future remains bright. Charging speeds are improving, vehicles are becoming more efficient, networks are getting more reliable, and at some point, theoretically, there will be enough EVs on the road to justify all this infrastructure.
Until then, the EV charging industry will continue its bold mission: building tomorrow’s transportation network today, using yesterday’s business model, next year’s hardware standards, and a spreadsheet that becomes profitable sometime shortly after everyone stops asking questions.
Asked whether the market will eventually work itself out, one analyst nodded confidently.
“Oh, absolutely,” he said. “Just like railroads, broadband, airlines, streaming, office real estate, and every other industry where everyone agreed the future was inevitable right before half the companies exploded.”