Deutsche Telekom just announced plans to convert distribution boxes in Germany into electric vehicle chargers – and the move will double the size of the nation’s charging infrastructure with 12,000 new stations. According to Electrek, there’s currently about 10,800 public electric car charging points in Germany – and that number stands to skyrocket in the near future.
Deutsche Telekom is considering installing 500 100-kilowatt (kW) fast-charging stations, while the rest of the stations will be Level 2 charge points with charge rates up to 22 kW. Level 2 chargers can fill an 80-mile battery in around three and a half hours, and DC fast chargers can get an EV up to 80 percent in around half an hour, according to EV charging technology company ChargePoint.
Related: First public ultra-fast EV charging station in Europe is now operational
Telekom reportedly possesses two working prototypes, Electrek said. A spokesperson told German publication Automobilwoche they could begin the process of converting distribution boxes this summer. By 2020, all 12,000 charging stations could be in place.
Automobilwoche said the EV charging station network in Germany is still patchy. Electrek said EV adoption in Germany has trailed behind other European countries. So a doubling of charging infrastructure could offer a boost the electric car industry needs in the country.
In November 2017 CleanTechnica reported almost 40,000 plug-in electric vehicles had been sold in the country up to the end of September that year — around a 106 percent growth rate compared to the same nine-month period in 2016.
This won’t be the first time a telecommunications company has utilized infrastructure in place for electric car charging; back in 2010 Inhabitat reported that an Austrian company, Telekom Austria, transformed phone booths into charging stations.
Via Electrek and Automobilwoche
Images via Wikimedia Commons and Kārlis Dambrāns on Flickr
