The municipal housing company ABG, which claims to provide almost a quarter of the Frankfurt population with living space, has only equipped 150 of its parking spaces with charging stations for e-cars.
That's not even one percent of the parking spaces the company rents to its customers.
The Nassau homestead is not in much better shape.
If the expansion progresses at this pace, the transport turnaround will fail due to the lack of infrastructure.
Not everyone lives in a single-family house and can charge their e-car with solar energy that they have captured on the roof. Germany is a tenant country, in the big cities a particularly large number of people do not live in their own four walls. If tenants behave in a climate-friendly manner and want to buy an e-car, they are dependent on the charging options on a property that does not belong to them. Tenants now have a legal claim that the owner must allow them to install a charging station at their own expense. But enforcement often fails due to practice.
The ABG, which otherwise bravely marches on in terms of climate protection - the existing buildings are continuously being refurbished and insulated to the passive house standard - is surprisingly hesitant in expanding the charging options.
Technical concerns are raised, which of course cannot be dismissed out of hand: The house connections are quickly at the capacity limit if too many tenants want to charge their cars.
Although the network operator Mainova assures that the expansion of e-mobility will not fail due to the capacity of its power grids.
What's right now?
Accelerate expansion
In addition, the ABG refers to the low demand.
The argument is not convincing.
It is an economic truism that not only does demand determine supply, but, conversely, that supply arouses interest in a thing.
Psychologically it's simple: if I know that I can comfortably charge the battery of an electrically powered vehicle in the garage of my apartment building, I'm more likely to decide to buy such a car.
If the ambitious climate targets are to be achieved, the expansion of e-mobility must be accelerated.
An offensive is needed.
The public housing associations should lead by example when it comes to charging stations.