Aral to set up 100+ charging points at gas stations in Germany

The mineral oil company Aral has announced that it intends to set up more than 100 fast-charging points at its German filling stations within the next twelve months. The expansion is to continue as the oil giant’s long-term planning envisages “several hundred locations”.

In February, Aral completed its pilot project for high power charging with the opening of the fifth charging park. These charging points are operated independently, supply pure green electricity and have a charging capacity of up to 350 kW. Up to now, Aral has relied on charging points that each offer a CCS and CHAdeMO connection.

This is exactly what is planned for the 100 new charging points. Charging parks are planned at around thirty Aral filling stations located along motorways, federal roads or in large cities. They will have two charging columns with two charging points each. “We want to be a leading provider of ultra-fast charging stations and, as the market leader in the German filling station business, we are an ideal contact point for fast charging on the road,” says Aral board member Patrick Wendeler.

The first new charging stations are scheduled to go into operation in just a few weeks; they are located in Wuppertal and Wollin in Brandenburg. According to Aral, the exact sequence in which the other systems will be commissioned depends, among other things, on the expansion of the network. In the long term, the number of sites is expected to reach several hundred “if an economically viable business model can be implemented there”.

The charging points will be integrated into Hubject’s Intercharge charging network. This means that it is also possible to use the Aral columns with third-party charging cards. Alternatively, the charging process can also be billed without registration via a mobile payment website using a debit card, credit card or Paypal. Fleet customers can also use the ‘Aral Fuel & Charge Card’.

“With our five pilot stations we were able to gain valuable experience last year, which is now being incorporated into our further planning,” says Wendeler. As examples, the Aral Board of Management cites improved traffic routing on the filling station site and “where possible” to roof the charging bays.

Apart from Aral, other oil companies also rely on high-powered chargers at their filling stations. In May 2019, Shell announced the construction of 50 charging points with up to 175 kW in cooperation with EnBW, and in February 2020 the British-Dutch company announced the expansion to 100 charging points. In addition, the French Total Group announced in early February that it intended to install 1,000 rapid charging points at 300 locations in Western Europe by the end of 2022, whereby Germany will have just under 70 locations with around 200 charging points.

aral.de (in German)