Berlin, May 8, 2026, 15:07 CEST
TotalEnergies has opened an 18-point ultra-fast electric-vehicle charging hub near Berlin Central Station, putting 400-kilowatt plugs in one of the capital’s busiest transport areas as Germany’s charging build-out moves deeper into city centres. The station is on Invalidenstrasse, between Hamburger Bahnhof and the Berlin Social Court, and all chargers use power from renewable sources backed by guarantees of origin.
The timing matters. Germany’s VDA auto industry group said battery-electric car registrations rose 41% in April to 64,350, while electric vehicles including plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell cars rose 32% to 91,898, pushing electrified models to 37% of new registrations.
Supply is rising too, but the pressure is changing shape. Germany’s Federal Network Agency listed 149,002 normal charging points and 51,253 fast-charging points in operation as of April 1, with 8.50 gigawatts of simultaneous charging capacity available.
TotalEnergies is aiming the Berlin site at office workers in Europacity, taxi operators, commuters, private drivers and visitors to nearby museums. Jan Petersen, managing director of TotalEnergies Charging Solutions Germany, said the hub brings high-performance fast charging “where it is needed most.” MobilityPlaza
The company also put price in the foreground. A launch offer on its German site lists charging at 0.59 euros per kilowatt-hour until May 31 at Invalidenstrasse 50, alongside 18 covered spaces, two accessible bays, a tyre-pressure unit and a vacuum cleaner.
Competitive pressure is already visible. EnBW has added 18 fast chargers rated at up to 400 kW near the A6 in Landstuhl and the A7 in Ellwangen Jagst, with the sites running on renewable electricity; Martin Römheld, EnBW’s e-mobility chief executive, said the parks were suited to “short charging stops on long-distance journeys.” CleanTechnica
EnBW says it operates more than 8,000 fast-charging points in Germany, offers a fast-charging point every 50 km on average, and plans around 20,000 public fast-charging points by 2030. That gives the German utility scale TotalEnergies must work against as it picks high-traffic urban and airport sites.
The public programme is also crowding the field. Germany’s Deutschlandnetz plan is meant to add about 9,000 high-power charging, or HPC, points by the end of 2026 at more than 1,000 sites; TotalEnergies, E.ON Drive and Fastned are among selected motorway or regional operators. HPC means fast charging at high electrical output, and Deutschlandnetz requires each point to be technically capable of at least 300 kW peak power.
The freight side is next. NOW GmbH said Germany’s transport ministry is making 1 billion euros available over four years for charging infrastructure for battery-electric heavy-duty vehicles, including depot charging, public truck charging, grid connections, battery storage and load management. Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder said electric freight “can only be successful with a high-capacity infrastructure,” while NOW chief Dagmar Fehler said smaller firms need “practical solutions.” NOW GmbH
But more plugs will not by itself settle the economics. ACT News, in an article tied to ABB E-mobility’s Michael Halbherr, said one-off charging site designs can add service complexity, integration problems and stranded capital, while the next phase of the sector will be judged by lifetime cost per kilowatt-hour delivered. If utilisation disappoints or grid connections drag, today’s prime hubs can become expensive assets rather than durable advantages.
TotalEnergies opened a flagship hub at Berlin Brandenburg Airport last year with 12 car charging points and three truck charging points, each rated up to 400 kW. The Central Station site takes that same high-power format into the city core, where Germany’s charging race is becoming less about whether drivers can find a plug, and more about where, how fast and at what cost.
