Our charging stations are covered by an electronics insurance policy for the charging pole and connected chargers. It covers destruction, unforeseen events, loss and force majeure as well as design, material or workmanship defects.

The first Mennekes charging stations require a visual inspection every six months and maintenance every four years. The electronics are maintained remotely.  

This means that the planned utilisation of the charging stations is not affected: Four vehicles per day and charging point can charge 50% of theirs for eight hours.

Yes, there are. We are currently taking a close look at the underground car park infrastructure of the company "Heimladen", through which interested tenants can rent a box in the emonet look.  

However, in rural areas such as small towns and commercial areas, including the Vogtland, outdoor solutions will play the main role. Underground garages are less common here than in conurbations due to the space available in outdoor areas.

There are several reasons:  

• The topic of charging infrastructure concerns everyone. Through crowdfunding, we involve a broader public in the project and let them benefit from it.  
• Traditional financial institutions (banks, leasing companies) are still hesitant about the business model of charging infrastructure operation because there is little experience to validate it.
• We need funds with short maturity. Traditional mezzanine financing is not much cheaper or requires disproportionately high collateral.

The latest status in the immediate vicinity can be viewed at https://ladesaeulenregister.de. All reported public and semi-public charging points are registered here. In figures: According to the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), there are currently just over 41,700 charging points in Germany. That is around 50 charging points per 100,000 inhabitants. We estimate that between 2,000 and 3,000 charging points per 100,000 inhabitants are needed if 30 percent of all registered vehicles are to be electric by 2040. There is still a lot of room for improvement.

A charging pole can contain several charging points. A wallbox is usually one charging point. Each charging cable that can be connected to a piece of hardware at the same time is an additional charging point.

The battery in the e-car stores direct current and delivers it to the technology in the same way. The power grids in Germany transport alternating current. Therefore, the charging current must be converted. This happens either in the hardware before the charging point (charging station) or in the vehicle.If the current has to be converted to direct current in the vehicle, this reduces the charging speed. That's why fast charging stations (Superchargers) output direct current that has already been converted. This happens with a power of up to 300 kW - a challenge for the power grid!

Charging points, on the other hand, where vehicles draw alternating current, have an output of up to 22 kW.

By way of comparison, vehicle batteries with a capacity of 40 kWh require 20 minutes at the Supercharger and around 3.5 hours at the 22 kW charging point for a complete charge.

Yes, here the industry and the authorities have agreed on standards for charging with AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current). For AC charging, "Type2" plugs are generally used, and for DC charging, plugs with the "CCS" (Combined Charging System) standard.

According to the ADAC, 10 million electric cars would mean an additional electricity demand of about 5.6 percent or 30 TWh. That would be bearable for the German power grid as a whole. The challenge is the electricity demand at the specific charging point.

A German household has a connection of 14.5 kW; with hot water heating, it is 34 kW.

A charging point that charges a battery with the capacity of 40 kWh in a manageable time (about 3.5 hours) has a connection value of 22 kW. The e-charging stations of emonet contain up to 20 charging points. If several e-cars are charging at the same time, this will have an impact on the adjacent power grid.

You can imagine what this means for the fast charging stations with connections up to 300 kW.

The solution to these stresses is buffer storage, which temporarily stores electricity during charging breaks, which is then available in the appropriate quantity during peak times.

To protect the power grids, different peak times are defined depending on the region, at which the charging infrastructure is disconnected from the grid for approx. 1.5 hours in the morning and 1.5 hours in the evening. Furthermore, several charging points have to be connected in series, so that several people willing to charge have to share the power when charging at the same time. This increases the charging time by a factor of vehicles.

To counteract both impairments, buffer storage is indispensable and must be dimensioned according to the quantity of charging points in the specific case of emonet.

The main providers of public charging infrastructure in Germany are the electricity suppliers (80 percent of the charging infrastructure) and the major manufacturers of e-cars (Superchargers on European highways - Ionity or Tesla). In addition, there are more and more providers like emonet, which build charging infrastructure tailored to regions. It will take everyone's effort to meet this challenge. Different business models will result in the networks. Intensive work is currently being done on a national and European standard with regard to charging and payment options.

We are looking for sites in residential areas, in commercial areas and in city centers with a high proportion of offices. The respective power grid operator must enable connections that correspond to the planned number of charging points with storage support.