Recently, the German government appears to have quietly dropped its target of laying one million charging points for electric vehicles by 2030. Officially, the target is still set, but they have stopped aiming to achieve it. The reason is that it was found that many people prefer to charge at home rather than on the street or in supermarket car parks. According to one report, the target, set for 2021, was originally set by the car manufacturers’ lobbying, who wanted to develop the charging network as their next source of revenue. However, it seems that things are not going according to their intentions.

Of course, the installation of public charging points should be promoted as a measure to improve ease of use, but is a million points really necessary at the end of 2030? Some people argue that this is not the case. Depending on the experts and the composition of the output (how many fast chargers are included), the scale of what is considered necessary varies between 450,000 and 850,000 points, but it is less than one million points. However, it is clear that the scale will only need to increase up to tenfold from the current 85,000 points.

However, there is a sense of deja vu in this development. The German Government also (quietly) dropped its target of ‘1 million low-emission vehicles by 2020’, announcing the following year that it had achieved this target one year late. This target, too, was originally supposed to cover EVs (the definition of this EV was also unclear), but the scope has been expanded before long. As far as this case shows, the German government makes a big announcement if it has achieved a numerical target, even if the content or timing has changed slightly (although in the case of the low emission vehicle promotion, the purpose was also to set and announce a subsequent target). So, am I the only one who does not feel that the recharge point target will be pulled out as if it were a reminder when the million point target is exceeded a few years past 2030, and the results will be widely publicised, without saying loudly that the target has been dropped?

This section summarises the electric vehicle industry in North America, Europe, China, India and other major Asian countries and Japan. It will include electric vehicle sales figures for major regions and countries, product plans by market, investment plans of automobile companies and capacity plans related to electric vehicles. The special feature will also explain the Software Defined Vehicles strategy, which is essential for the future electric vehicle race.