By 2030, Berlin’s S-Bahn ring could become a combustion-free zone – at least that’s what the Greens want. However, the state still has a long way to go before such a ban can be reached by driving the state’s own vehicle fleet without petrol and diesel, as the SPD, Greens and Left Party have agreed.
This is shown by current figures on the number of vehicles from the response of the Senate Chancellery to a request from MP Tobias Bauschke (FDP). Accordingly, the police and fire brigade in particular still face major challenges in achieving this goal.
Of the 2,813 police cars, only 15 are currently purely electric. Two of them are operated with hydrogen. Almost the entire fleet still has to be replaced if Berlin’s center is to become a ban on combustion engines – because that is one of the requirements that the SPD, Greens and Left Party have negotiated before private drivers are also allowed to drive with petrol and diesel within the S-Bahn ring is forbidden.
But the pace of conversion of the vehicle fleet is still modest. Only 30 more e-cars are to drive the police patrol by the end of 2023. Accordingly, their own charging infrastructure is also not very advanced. The police have only installed 18 charging stations at their stations across Berlin.
There are practical reasons for the slow expansion. If the police were to purchase their new patrol cars as electric vehicles, “the payload would drop by around 150 kg, and the possibility of transporting five people together with the necessary resources would then no longer be possible,” Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) recently told the House of Representatives Status of the electrification of the fleet with. This would currently increase the investment requirement by 43 percent.
Spranger also sees constraints in the charging infrastructure. At the Friesenstraße location in Kreuzberg alone, charging facilities would have to be created for 400 cars. “If only half of these vehicles were to request a charging capacity of 11 kW, which is currently standard, for one hour at the same time, the electricity requirement would be equivalent to that of a two-person household for a year,” Spranger calculated.
It is “doubtful” whether this could be cushioned by intelligent charging management alone. “Substantial additional investments are certainly required here to upgrade the local power grid.”
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The situation with the fire service is similar. Of its more than 1,000 vehicles, it also owns only 14 that can be used without emissions. According to plan, 23 more electric vehicles will be added by the end of 2023. But even that is only a fraction. For the fire brigade, exceptions apply to the changeover for technical reasons.
There is now also a first electric fire engine. However, there are no plans for the firefighters to have to replace all of their ladder and fire engines before the ban on burners takes effect. But all smaller vehicles, such as cars and vans, do.
So far, however, even with wagons under 3.5 tons, “an increase in the number has only taken place with the targeted procurement of individual vehicles,” said Spranger. Current tenders for new acquisitions are also “deliberately formulated in such a way that all drive types are permitted”.
In practice, however, “basically no or very few offers are made for vehicles with all-electric drives, plug-in hybrids or natural gas/LPG drives”. Similar to the police, however, the Berlin fire brigade has hardly had any opportunities to recharge their batteries. There are only seven charging stations on their premises.
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“It’s true that Berlin is using electric cars for its state-owned vehicle fleet,” said FDP MP Tobias Bauschke. To do this, however, the charging infrastructure on the company premises must be expanded in advance. “This project can only fail because of the implementation weakness of this Senate.”
Too few charging points and an inadequate charging infrastructure damage acceptance and user behavior, said the FDP politician. “The Senate must finally act here and prove that it can also live up to its political claims.”
