Siemens, a German manufacturing and electronics company, has announced that starting in 2017, its employees at as many as 100 company locations in Germany will be able to charge their electric vehicles (EVs) for free.
According to the company, this will apply not only to pure EVs, but also to plug-in hybrid EVs. For this service, Siemens will use its existing network of charging stations, which it is expanding with normal and high-speed charging stations.
To reduce employees’ carbon footprint, the charging points will supply electricity only from renewable energy sources.
The electricity and the use of the charging stations will be free in 2017; thereafter, Siemens will decide on future electricity pricing from year to year – enabling the company to react flexibly to cost developments and other factors, such as government subsidies.
This free charging will first be available only at Siemens locations in Germany – for example, Nuremberg-Erlangen, the greater Munich area, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Braunschweig and Mülheim an der Ruhr.
The company says that a Siemens ID card is all that is needed to use the charging stations. However, only vehicles registered in the name of Siemens employees or their family members may be charged.
For the future, the company is aiming to link the charging stations via an international network so that using a company ID card to charge car batteries will be just as easy at Siemens locations outside Germany as it is within the country’s borders. The charging stations are equipped with smart charging technology and software from Siemens that integrate an electricity meter, billing and user identification.
A global technology provider, Siemens is active in more than 200 countries, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization via its many business arms, which include a wind power and renewables division.
