Mercedes-Benz charging in Europe is now Electra

On Sunday I saw it in a Facebook group: Mercedes-Benz charging hubs showing up as Electra. I did not believe it.

By Monday it was all over X and LinkedIn.

I rarely send two newsletters in one week, so forgive me for the extra email. But moves this big don’t happen often. So I did what I always do: I researched the story and the sites, using the database I have built. So far it covers 100,000 DC charge points across Europe, down to which charger maker is installed. If you are interested, reach out! But let's get back to the story.

Update: This morning Electra confirmed it on LinkedIn: 47 Mercedes-Benz hubs joined its network, including 31 in Germany and 6 in Austria. That matches the 37 I found in Germany and Austria. I located 42 hubs in total, so there are 5 I am not aware of. Maybe they are still being built.

KEY POINTS

The first thing I did when I read the news: I looked at the EVSE IDs. And the change was right there. Here are three of them, before and after:

The Mercedes IDs are gone, replaced by Electra IDs. Same chargers, same point numbers.

What surprised me most: on 30 October I was at the Mercedes-Benz hub in Wörrstadt. The site was about to go online. It was being commissioned that day, with three field service technicians on site. I knew I had to make a video, and I did. It performed really well on LinkedIn.

Then I got this news, and I could not believe it.

Over the weekend, 37 of the 42 hubs I located became Electra: all 31 in Germany and all 6 in Austria. That is 280 charge points so far. Counting all 42 hubs I located, I get 328 charge points. With the 5 hubs I have not found yet, I estimate around 380 charge points in total.

For Mercedes-Benz drivers, Electra promises preferential rates, in car access and I think charge point reservation across its network.

The interesting part: it is all Alpitronic. That is sheer dominance. And Electra runs mostly Alpitronic too, so they know this hardware inside out.

Hamburg Wandsbek had two 800 kW points. As far as I know, the fastest CCS charging on any public network in Germany, at least until BYD opens its megawatt chargers. Electra now lists them at 600 kW. I think that is a mistake, and I expect them back at 800 kW. Same for Wörrstadt, which has an HP dispenser.

For Electra this is huge. By my count, it now has 82 sites in Germany, and the Mercedes hubs alone are 44% of its German charge points. Across Europe, its website now counts 850+ sites.

These are the five I have not seen switch yet: Arlanda in Sweden, Vestby in Norway, Ringsted and Vejle in Denmark, and Parma in Italy. They appear offline on the maps, and so far none of them shows the name Electra. Since Electra says 47 hubs joined, these five are surely part of it. That still leaves 5 more that I am not aware of.

At ICNC in September, I heard a vague hint from a reliable source: Mercedes-Benz charging seems finished. I expected job cuts, perhaps no further expansion. But handing the complete network over was not on my cards.

Running charging is not for everyone. It is a tough, tough business: utilization, grid costs, uptime, pricing, TCO. A carmaker's job is selling cars. Electra does charging full time, and it shows: they are scaling fast while keeping a network with a really good reputation and uptime. Hats off to them and wishing them all the best.

This will not be the last one. Consolidation will keep happening. Networks will be bought and sold, and site hosts will wake up with a new operator in their parking lot.

And every time, the first question is the same: why did the business fail? Wrong sites? Poor utilization? Downtime? Amenities? A wrong business case? Wrong hardware? These investment decisions are significant, and this is where I can help.

Most of these mistakes are made before the first charger is installed.

I am an independent e-mobility consultant. I worked at a charger manufacturer and sold 400+ DC fast chargers in Germany before going on my own. I have built a database of 600+ DC chargers available in the EU, with their strengths and weaknesses. I have a network of EPCs, turnkey solution providers and service partners, so I hear about market shifts in real time. And I have mapped 100,000+ DC charging points across Europe, down to the charger maker behind each charge point. So I see which chargers are being installed, and which are being replaced.

I help you:

I help you understand where your product stands, why you are losing deals, what the competition is doing and where its installed base is, and how to sell your chargers, directly or through channel partners.

Anywhere in the EU.

Email me at [email protected]. Let's discuss your project!

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