Hagen Knoll writes from Germany, where high-power destination charging hubs are helping make the EV experience more seamless

I drive an electric car in Hannover, Germany, and I don’t own a home charging point. In fact, I don’t even have a fixed parking spot. I rely 100 per cent on public charging.

Last Saturday I drove to my local supermarket, plugged in while I did my groceries and drove home again. 

That was the only moment all week when charging played any role for me. And that is the point: the charging adapts to the errand. When charging happens where you already are, you simply stop noticing it. 

For me, a seamless charging experience is not mainly about speed. It is about charging that fits into something you are doing anyway, so it stops being a decision. 

So where does Canada stand today for public EV charging? More positive than the usual “years behind Europe” story suggests. 

On the number that matters most, public chargers per EV, Germany has roughly twice Canada’s density. That is a clear gap, but not a completely different world. And the reliability of Canadian chargers is already quite good by most measures. This is not a broken network.

The question for Canada is not whether there are enough chargers, but which type to build next. Public fast charging is where Europe made the mistakes Canada can still avoid. 

The first instinct is to spread chargers thinly, one or two every few kilometres. But value follows traffic, and one large site at a busy junction is worth far more than many scattered points. For the driver, this is about reliability, and reliability is what creates the seamless experience.

Arrive at a hub with 20 to 40 charging points at 300 kW or more and you can be fairly sure to plug in right away. A single, isolated charger is a gamble: occupied, out of order or free and working — you only find out on arrival. 

In that moment, all the planning and the range math come back into play, the exact opposite of seamless.

Slower public chargers still have their value. Level 2 points at workplaces or on residential streets help with confidence and adoption. But they are not a business case for selling electricity because that depends on volume, and the volume sits in the high-power hubs. 

This is also why the European market is consolidating: location becomes the scarce resource, well-capitalized operators secure the best junctions first and barely used chargers get taken over or shut down. 

Large-hub coverage makes sense along travel corridors, where nobody should be stranded. But inside the cities, the build-out should also follow real demand.

That’s how to get an EV driver to stop thinking about charging. I reached this point myself. 

At the supermarket I use a 150 kW charger. It could be faster, but the store wants me inside for half an hour anyway. Again, the charging adapts to the errand. 

Canada, with far more detached houses than Europe’s dense cities, is in the better starting position. It has the driveways that carry the everyday charging for many drivers, and the freedom to put public fast charging where it pays off. 

A seamless experience is not automatically years away. In the end it depends on where the next chargers are built.