Fastned, the Dutch-based fast charging company, is granted permission to build 34 EV charging sites in Germany. It won one lot in the second so-called “Deutschlandnetz” tender, which will result in the building of 200 unmanaged charging stations along German highways.

The other 5 lots were granted to the bidding consortium Autostrom, E.ON and TotalEnergies. It is not clear how these lots are divided over the three other parties. According to Autobahn GmbH, the three operators or three individual operators and the bidding consortium should have installed the charging points by 2026. A total of six nationwide lots were put out to tender, each containing 32 to 34 locations. Each site comprises 4, 6 or 8 fast-charging points – so in total, around 1,000 HPC points are to be created.

The 34 new sites that Fastned is going to build are mainly located in northern Germany. The company will continue its mission to accelerate the transition to electric mobility by installing state-of-the-art fast charging stations with 400kW chargers, where charging takes just 15 minutes for a range of up to 300 kilometres, depending on the vehicle type.

The first stations as part of the current nationwide highway tender are expected to be built in 2025. The winners of the first part of the “Deutschlandnetz” tender, the so-called regional lots, were announced back in September 2023, with Fastned winning two lots comprising 92 search areas. The first Fastned charging park as part of this project was opened in Düren in December 2023. Fastned is still the only company to have put a German network site into operation.

For the federal government, the lots in the second “Deutschlandnetz” tender were also a kind of win-win situation, as not only are urgently needed charging points created along the motorway, but the unmanaged rest areas are also upgraded. These sites are often only equipped with an unheated toilet block and the entire car park is usually not illuminated. The sites therefore do not have a sufficient power connection for four to eight fast-charging points, which is why the grid connection has yet to be built. All of this had led to criticism of the project in the run-up to the tendering process.

Linda Boll, Country Manager of Fastned Germany, is happy with the contract award and is pleased that Fastned will be building fast-charging parks directly on German motorways for the first time. However, she also sees room for improvement in the tender plans: “We can now offer our customers the Fastned service directly on the German highway for the first time. So far, there are no plans to build restaurants and shops at the rest areas or to upgrade the sanitary facilities, which would make the sites a lot more attractive. We hope to enter into dialogue with Autobahn GmbH and the Federal Ministry in this regard and ultimately be able to offer our customers the best possible charging experience,” she said.