Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/BERLIN: German carmakers VW and Mercedes-Benz have urged the government to increase the number of electric vehicle charging stations across the country, the German paper Bild am Sonntag said on Sunday.
“To speed up a change to electric vehicles, we need to be sure the charging station infrastructure is being built up,” Benz Chief Executive Ola Kallenius was quoted as saying by the paper. “That’s a question for politics.”
VW stance
VW Chief Executive Oliver Blume said more speed was needed and that the construction of charging stations was “a common task of the economy, the federal government, and communes.”
Last October, the German government approved the plan to spend 6.3 billion euros to rapidly increase the number of charging stations as part of its push towards net zero emissions. The project included speeding up state approvals to build more charging points.
Industry associations, which long complained that the government had not kept pace with the rapid expansion of electric vehicles, said implementing the proposals was vital.
“The future of the vehicles is electric,” Kallenius was quoted as saying. “By the end of this period, we are ready to completely transition to electric vehicles in our market segment, wherever market conditions allow it.”
