German E.ON purchases Better Places network of 770 charging stations spread over Denmark

With Better Place bankruptcy in May 2013 the Danish market for electric cars faced a temporary setback. Nonetheless, with E.ON’s entrance on the Danish electric car market – via their purchase of Better Places 770 charging stations - the situation is now brought back on track. E.ON is one of the major public utility companies in Europe, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. The charging stations are located in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg, Odense and several other major cities in Denmark. The charging stations have since the bankruptcy with a red light indicated that the electric car customers had to find other places to get their electric car charged. That is changing now. It is E.ON's goal to re-open the charging stations by the end of September 2013.

E.ON, who serve more than 35 million customers around Europe, has chosen to purchase the charging stations as part of a larger commitment to green transport solutions in Denmark, as they see an exciting future for electric cars in Denmark and estimates that electric vehicles are particularly well suited for passenger transport in the big cities. A well-functioning infrastructure of charging stations is perfectly suited to realize E.ON's visions in the EV area. Better Place “Battery Swap Stations” and the associated technology is, however, not part of E.ON's purchase, thus the stations are still without a potential buyer. E.ON has no doubt that the future belongs to green transport solutions - both to reduce CO2 emissions, but also to reduce air pollution from traffic, which is a major problem in big cities.

As the transport sector must be fossil free in 2050, E.ON believes that it is essential that there is a rapid integration between the energy sector and the transport sector. With this new business opportunity in Denmark E-ON believes the Danes are offered a wide range of transport solutions based on E.ON’s existing platform of renewable energy sources. The Danish Minister for Trade and European affairs, Nick Haekkerup, is glad for the good news good news. “It helps the Danes, who were in a difficult situation with their electric cars from Better Place. These persons can now again charge their cars. It's is also good, because it is good for Denmark to be up front, when it comes to green transition and green jobs." Since the goal for deployment of public charging infrastructure in Denmark - set in the EU Proposal (2013/0012) On the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure - is to reach 5.000 publicly accessible charging points by 2020, the purchase strengthens the whole E-mobility network in Denmark and hereby the aims of the E-Mobility NSR project