(new: Association of Energy and Water Industries added)

BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The industrial union Industriegewerkschaft Metall is lobbying for shopping centers to be required to install charging points for electric cars. "Large parking lots of shopping centers and along highways should be mandatorily required to be equipped with charging stations," IG Metall head Jörg Hofmann told the Funke-Mediengruppe newspapers. This should be done through regulatory law, he added. Whether the goal of 15 million electric cars in Germany by 2030 will be achieved depends on the charging station and network infrastructure, the union leader said.

Retailers and the energy industry rejected the demand. The Federal Association of the Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) made it clear that the expansion of the public charging offer is already progressing very well. This is happening above all in numerous cooperative ventures between retailers and companies in the energy and charging sector, BDEW Managing Director Kerstin Andreae said on Wednesday. The simplest and quickest way to further accelerate the expansion of charging stations, she said, is to provide access to public areas.

For the German Retail Association (HDE), CEO Stefan Genth called an obligation to build charging stations in the retail sector neither expedient nor necessary. He said that at least 15 percent of all public charging points are already installed on retail premises. One in three fast-charging points is located at retail outlets. But retailers needed the freedom to choose their own locations, he said. "Not every location is suitable for installation. It makes sense to have a market-driven expansion so as not to build past the need with a watering can," Genth argued.

In addition, he said, adapted subsidies are needed, including for retail charging stations. "As before, all of this is too bureaucratic, too lengthy and cannot be taken up by retailers, as the basic condition for this is that the parking areas must be open around the clock, seven days a week. However, this is not possible for about 55 percent of the parking areas," said the association's managing director./brd/DP/jha