Why is Electra coming to Germany?

One thing caught my attention this week. Electra, one of Europe's fastest-growing charging operators, is recruiting heavily in Germany with the help of one of their co-founders, Julien Belliato.

I had the opportunity to get to know the founders and the company some time ago. One question stayed with me from those discussions: why is it so difficult to get charging projects moving in Germany? Coming from outside, they genuinely seemed surprised by how slowly things progressed.

Now they appear to have reached a simple conclusion. If Germany is Europe's largest automotive market, waiting is probably not the right strategy. Better to enter the market and help shape it.

I think they are right.

The interesting thing is that the discussion around charging has changed. A few years ago, success was measured by the number of charging points installed. Today that feels far too simplistic. Charging has become a real business with real economics. Electricity is no longer cheap, grid connections are scarce, and drivers have become much more demanding about where, when and how they charge.

The question is therefore no longer how many chargers we build, but whether we build the right network.

A commuter in a city has completely different needs from a consultant driving 60,000 kilometres a year. Holiday traffic creates different demand from logistics traffic. Some locations need high utilisation, others need convenience, and some need very high power because every minute matters.

Designing that network is becoming a mobility problem rather than an engineering problem.

That is why I find Germany such an interesting market. The need is obvious, the technical capability exists, yet many of the bold moves increasingly come from companies that were not founded here.

Perhaps that is exactly what competition is supposed to look like.

Or perhaps it is a reminder that, in a market as important as charging, standing still is no longer an option.