TotalEnergies to install 500 charging points in Berlin

French oil and gas corporation TotalEnergies has signed an agreement with the city of Berlin to install up to 500 public AC charge points with a capacity of 11 kW over the next three years.

Under the deal, the petrochemical company will also operate these charging stations until 2030, as announced during the inauguration of the first site as part of the “Berliner Modell.” The inaugural station is located in Berlin-Schöneberg on Babelsberger Straße 46.

Total plans to carry out the rollout in close collaboration with the Berlin Senate and the local grid operator, Stromnetz Berlin. In addition to the 11 kW charging capacity, the stations will be powered by 100% renewable energy. However, the reason behind the 2030 operational period limit remains unclear.

The exact locations for the 500 charging points, whether in residential areas, the outskirts, or the city centre, have not been specified in the communication received via email from Total. Jan Petersen, Managing Director of TotalEnergies Charging Solutions Deutschland, expressed enthusiasm, saying, “We are very pleased to contribute to making electromobility more accessible to more people in Berlin. Our publicly accessible charging points offer an attractive and sustainable option for many Berlin households without private parking spaces to charge their electric vehicles with green energy. TotalEnergies is committed to expanding the charging infrastructure in Germany, including public street charging and partner locations.”

Since 2020, TotalEnergies has scored contracts to develop public charging networks in major urban areas, such as Greater Amsterdam (22,000 charging points), Antwerp (3,000), Flanders (4,400), Brussels (500), Ghent (800), London (2,100), Paris (2,300), Singapore (1,500), and Wuhan (11,000). In October 2022, TotalEnergies established its charging infrastructure subsidiary in Germany. In the hydrogen sector, the company is working with Air Liquide to build a European hydrogen network for trucks. By 2027, the company will operate over 150,000 charging stations in Europe and Asia.

Meanwhile, TotalEnergies plans to divest from the consumer-facing petrol station business in some countries. This includes Germany and the Netherlands, where Total intends to sell its network of gas stops to the Canadian company Couche-Tard. The move is attributed to the planned phasing out of internal combustion engines in the EU by 2035.

It does, however, not mean, Total would leave the oil business behind despite efforts to appear green. Legal action is currently underway as Greenpeace France, Friends of the Earth France and Notre Affaire a Tous, supported by ClientEarth, filed a lawsuit in March 2022 against Total, arguing that the company’s ‘reinvention’ ad campaign violates European consumer law as it misleads the public on what the company’s plans mean for the climate crisis. TotalEnergies, in May, failed to stop the net zero greenwashing case from proceeding, which ClientEarth considers “historic”.

Source: Information on the Berlin network received via email.