Collaboration between the government and country's biggest highway rest area operator Tank und Rast is bringing multi-standard fast chargers to German highways. A total of 390 charging stations every 30km will be erected by the end of 2017, meaning all rest areas operated by Tank und Rast will become e-mobility friendly. Part of German government's push to promote electric mobility, the e-service stations are meant to take away the range anxiety from the heads of current EV users and their potential buyers and boost e-mobility in the country.

Apart from being set up at close distances from each other, each station will have at least 1 multistandard charger, and, where possible, more and thus shall provide EV drivers with the coveted-by-all redundancy. They will be able to venture out to do long distance trips without the fear of both not having where to charge and of turning up at a charger that is occupied by another driver.

Inaugurating the first station on the highway A9 between Munich and Nurnberg Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt praised the initiative for enabling EV travels from the North See all the way to the highest German mountain 'Zugspitze.'

The cost of chargers and their installation will be shared between the project partners and charging is free of charge during the set up phase. "We want to make a significant contribution to help this new propulsion technology to breakthrough in Germany. As a leading service provider on German highways, with this initiative we also show our commitment to actively promote mobility concepts of the future.” explained CEO of Tank & Rast Dr. Karl-H. Rolfes in the press release of the company.

The operators of the remaining 30 service areas that do not belong to Tank und Rast have also promised to join the initiative and deploy fast charging stations on their sites.