Hamburg opens Europe’s largest EV-sharing hub

Europe’s largest EV-sharing hub has opened at Hamburg Airport. It is run by the city’s public transit company HVV as part of their multimodal services. There have also been changes to Hamburg’s charge & park policies to utilise available charge points better.

But first to the new hub, which poses the 100th so-called “Switch Point” of HVV, where users can change to public transport or sharing offers. At Hamburg Airport, users can now switch to car-sharing vehicles from Sixt Share, Miles (former We-Share cars) and Share Now. 120 parking spaces near the airport terminals are reserved for the shared vehicles. And all spots are equipped with charging points, including 100 wall box charging stations (AC) with 22 kW and 20 DC charging points with a charging capacity of 75 kW.

The large site at Hamburg Airport was implemented so guests can use EVs from the above-mentioned car-sharing providers when arriving at and departing from the airport. That way, travellers can leave their car (with a combustion engine) at home.

Miles, Share Now, Sixt and WeShare had already agreed in October 2022 to increase the share of electric vehicles in their fleets to at least 80 per cent by the turn of the year 2023/24. The agreement included a strategic partnership between the four companies, the City of Hamburg and Hamburger Hochbahn. The latter agreed to create the necessary parking and charging infrastructure framework conditions.

With the new site at Hamburg airport, the HVV Switch system now has 200 charging points distributed across 16 locations. In addition, charging infrastructure will be added at as many as 20 more locations by the end of 2023.

With HVV Switch, Hamburg Hochbahn and the city want to successively expand public transportation with “smart, demand-based services,” such as sharing and on-demand offerings. The core of the offering is an app that users can use to view and book all relevant mobility services in the city.

Hamburg has been working decisively to decarbonise transport. Part of the measures is license plate showing an ‘E’ to designate electric cars. While this gave drivers parking privileges, the city is now clamping down on EV drivers using parking spots at charge points as a convenient location to leave their cars. EVs will only be allowed to park there if they are plugged in and actually charging. The city is gradually adding a sign reading “während des Ladevorganges” (“while charging”) for parking spaces in front of municipal charging points.

Previously, the signage regulated that only cars with the additional E on their license plates were allowed to park there – but charging was not mandatory. Also new: when charging, EVs can stay plugged in at a public AC charger for up to three hours in Hamburg. Charging was previously limited to two hours.

hochbahn.de (Switch points, in German), ndr.de (parking, in German)