100,000 charging points: Mahle wants to "help shape the drive turnaround"

Mahle is stepping on the gas big time with its charging start-up "chargeBIG": "If we want to have 15 million electric cars on the roads by 2030, which will be hard enough, we need to accelerate the construction of new charging points," says Arnd Franz, CEO of Mahle, in an interview with Autoren-Union Mobilität. "Eighty percent of all charging takes place at home or at work and less than 20 percent in the public sector. We need viable solutions for this 80 percent."

The Group CEO does not consider a wallbox at every parking space to be practicable. In addition, wallboxes are neither compliant with calibration law nor designed for dynamic load management.

The Stuttgart-based automotive supplier sees the Charge Big offering as a solution. The start-up has been a young separate business unit of the Mahle Group since 2022: It offers charging solutions for parking garages, company parking lots and apartment buildings with six or more parking spaces. At each parking space, the company installs just one charging plug for seven or 22 kW instead of an expensive wallbox. This plug is connected to a central control and distribution unit. This is where the patented intelligence of the system is located. The available power is distributed to the various vehicles, and the amount of electricity is registered and billed.

Originally intended for parking lots with 18 or more cars, a system has now been introduced for apartment buildings with six or more parking spaces. The cost per charging point is significantly lower than that of a wallbox. "We want to get to 100,000 by 2030 and help shape the drive turnaround," Franz said. (aum/gr)