E-offensive. The REWE Group has entered into a strategic partnership with EnBW and Shell, with the aim of building one of the largest and most up-to-date fast charging station networks in Germany. This will see the installation of up to 2,000 fast charging points at no fewer than 400 selected group-owned premises (REWE and PENNY) and other rented premises by the end of 2024. During the same period, the REWE Group plans to equip existing rented premises and new stores with up to 4,000 additional charging points. At present, 130 stores in Germany have a charging infrastructure in place. When combined with existing charging points, the network will include well over 6,000 charging points by the end of 2024.
The REWE Group’s network will expand significantly as a result of the partnerships. Germany currently has approximately 26,000 EV charging stations, ten percent of which are provided by retailers. According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, there were around 1.1 million electric vehicles (electric or plug-in hybrid) in Germany at the end of October 2021. The provision of charging stations is therefore becoming increasingly important in strategic terms. Depending on the infrastructure and electric vehicle in question, a five-minute charge can provide enough power to cover a distance of around 60 miles or 100 kilometres.
REWE Group Divisional Director, Telerik Schischmanow, said: The REWE Group has recently announced its intention to become a climate-neutral corporation by 2040. This is a highly ambitious goal, particularly as we will be reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent of 2019 levels as early as 2030. For us as a business, e-mobility has a crucial role to play here, in terms of company vehicles for instance. With this major expansion of the fast e-charging station infrastructure, we now want to focus on making e-mobility more straightforward for our customers. Only when we as a society do everything in our power across all areas of life will we stop climate change.
In Shell and EnBW, we have two strong partners that enable us to offer our customers the convenience of charging their electric vehicles using state-of-the-art, fast-charging stations while they shop. I am convinced that this is exactly the approach needed to further accelerate the wider use of electric vehicles. 70 percent of respondents in a 2020 survey saw the lack of charging stations as a significant factor discouraging them from purchasing an electric car. Schischmanow also believes that this will change in the foreseeable future, thanks to strategic partnerships such as these.
Linda van Schaik, Head of Shell’s filling station business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, said: Electric vehicle owners will have different requirements. Some will have a charging point in their garage, others will charge their vehicle at their workplace, a lamp-post charger, a car park or an ultra-fast charging point at one of our filling stations. We want to be the partner of choice and to make it easier for customers to switch to a battery electric vehicle because they can charge it whenever and wherever they want.
In recent years, EnBW has developed Germany’s largest fast charging network. This expertise makes us a strong and reliable partner for REWE. Together, we are driving electromobility forward in this country,
adds Timo Sillober, EnBW’s Chief Sales & Operations Officer with responsibility for electromobility. We want to easily integrate electromobility into our customers’ daily lives . Nowhere is this better demonstrated than at the supermarket: I drive to the supermarket car park and connect my car to the fast charger. When I finish my shopping and return to my vehicle 20 to 30 minutes later, it now has sufficient charge to last the next week or two. This is why EnBW has a strong commitment to retail partnerships as well as the expansion of its own network of charging stations in city centres and alongside motorways.
