A centrally positioned port of call in downtown Aachen – the E-Store, where Aachen’s public utility company, the STAWAG, offers information and advice on all practical issues relating to electromobility and charging options.
Since it opened in November 2018, the STAWAG’s E-Store has quickly developed into a centrally positioned port of call for all questions and queries about electromobility. “Anyone in Aachen or the surrounding region who is interested in getting from A to B by electrically-powered car or bicycle has a single source for answers to all the questions they may have about the concept,” says Christian Rademacher. “Our mission is to make the complete know-how on electromobility that the STAWAG and its partners have at their disposal available to the general public.”
Rademacher is on the STAWAG sales team for electromobility and advises visitors to the E-Store at AachenMünchener Platz 8 – and because the market for electromobility is growing fast, this service is in high demand. “You can tell that the topic is hot, because the E-Store is very well frequented. And it’s impressive how many visitors are already pretty well informed when they come to us and have well-founded, specific questions they want answering.”
Charging cards, wallboxes, test drives
And what are the topics that are trending at the moment? “Well, first of all, lots of people want to know about charging cards for our charging points. And then quite a number of our visitors want to know what conditions have to be met for them to have a charging option installed at home.” In this respect, the STAWAG, in cooperation with the regional trades sector, offers an installation package with prior inspection of the house wiring. “We also give them tips on possibilities of getting subsidies,” Christian Rademacher adds. A wallbox for your own garage can be subsidised up to 50 percent.
It’s increasingly common for people to want to use the electricity from their own photovoltaic systems to charge up their e-vehicles. In such cases, the team at the E-Store puts them in contact with colleagues who are specialised in this field. Finally, for visitors curious to fins out first-hand what e-mobility feels like, the E-Store has a range of cars and pedelecs available for test drives.
Quick to identify the potential
That the STAWAG is at the front of the field in terms of e-mobility is mainly due to the fact that the company was quick to identify the immense potential of climate-friendly and clean electric drives. As long ago as 2010, the STAWAG co-founded the innovation company smartlab, which, today, ranks among the market leaders in the development of national and European networks of charting points. With 140 charging points that provide exclusively green electricity, Aachen ranks in the Top 5 in Germany for “Charging points per Capita”. In “Project ALigN”, in which the STAWAG is a participant, almost 1,000 new charging points have been set up in Aachen and the region since the end of 2018.
