D.he route to the cheapest petrol station has been via an app for several years: at the push of a button it shows where petrol and diesel are cheapest in the area. The petrol station operators have to transmit the data regularly to the Federal Cartel Office, which then makes them available for price comparison.
With the same model, the Monopolies Commission would like to ensure more competition when drivers of electric cars drive to a charging station in order to spontaneously fill the battery without a contract or charging card. The lack of a price overview always causes nasty surprises, said the chairman of the commission Jürgen Kühling.
A simple lever
In a report presented on Wednesday, the government advisers therefore recommend expanding the market transparency unit to include reporting requirements for “ad hoc prices” at the charging stations. In addition, the operating companies are to be obliged to provide information in real time about which charging stations are currently free and occupied. “That would be a relatively simple lever to develop the market competitively,” said Kühling.
It is true that most e-car drivers have been charging their electricity using various charging cards and contract models. But more competition over the ad-hoc charging price will also make it easier for new operating companies to come up with attractive offers and thus increase the utilization of their pillars, according to the report.
Driven largely by government funding programs, the number of public charging points in Germany has doubled to more than 40,000 within two years. The goal remains to build one million charging points by 2030. In view of these “ambitious” requirements, the Monopolies Commission sees the danger that competition will be lost and that the traction current will therefore become too expensive. “However, the success of electromobility requires low charging prices,” warn the consultants.
As if there was only Shell or Aral
Commissioner Achim Wambach cited Berlin as a negative example. It looks better in Stuttgart, where several operating companies are approved. Wambach drew a comparison with the petrol filling stations: If they had the same monopoly structure there, in some places there would only be Shell or only Aral.
Due to the expansion of the charging stations, competitors were added; Nevertheless, the Monopolies Commission considers the situation in many regional and local markets to be worrying. This is especially true for the fast charging stations: In individual districts, three quarters of these charging points would be operated by a single provider.
Even on average for all charging points, the largest operator in the district has a market share of at least 40 percent. From this threshold, it is assumed under competition law that a company dominates the market. In many cases it can be assumed that the prices are higher than with effective competition. The Monopolies Commission therefore calls for a change in direction in public funding.
The focus is on a “bonus” for new providers and operators whose regional market share is less than 40 percent. There is not much time left for such a reorientation: the new federal program, which has just been approved by the EU Commission and which will provide a further 500 million euros in grants, is set to start in the second half of the year.
So far, new charging stations have generally been subsidized at a flat rate of 60 percent of the fixed installation and grid connection costs. One focus of the new program will be the expansion of the fast charging points on the motorways. To this end, the Monopolies Commission recommends designing the tenders in such a way that several operators can come into play at one petrol station.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/lack-of-competition-an-app-should-provide-cheap-electric-car-electricity/
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