"Cars will be predominantly battery-electric"

In our interview, Isabel Cademartori from the Social Democratic Party SPD explains how the 500 billion euro Special Fund for road and rail infrastructure will be invested and why the topics of depot charging for trucks and social leasing for electric cars are so important. 

Reichenbach: Isabel Cademartori, a lot of local trains are often subject to huge delays, and in the Rhine-Main area where I live, the S3 line is sometimes canceled altogether. And not only that, many roads and bridges are in a state of disrepair. How can we get Germany's infrastructure back to a decent condition again?

Cademartori: That is precisely the reason why infrastructure is now our focus with the 500 billion euro Special Fund. Our first priority is to create a situation in which people can fully rely on all modes of transportation. Our infrastructure, especially our roads, bridges, and railways, must first be able to meet their requirements. We can then take steps towards shifting more traffic towards local public transportation, especially if we have new capacities available. Nevertheless, we must continue to work on the regulations if we want to keep climate-friendly transportation and mobility services attractive. For that reason, it is so important that we in the SPD, as part of the new governing coalition, have succeeding in ensuring the continuation of the flat-rate Deutschland-Ticket. A lot of projects are in progress, and some, such as the general refurbishment of the Riedbahn line from Frankfurt to Mannheim, have already been completed. It’s also a fact that people are simply unaware of many of the measures being taken and projects like these require a lot of time.

Heintzel: So wouldn’t it be a good idea – and you may not like to hear this, but I am a former communications scientist – to hold a press conference every six months, in the interests of good PR, to let the press and the public know what projects you have launched?

Attempts have been made to communicate these issues better, but everything seemed to get lost in the disputes over other issues. Our aim in the new coalition is to remedy this situation. Obviously, we will continue to have discussions, and even tough negotiations, among ourselves. But we no longer want to give the impression to the outside world that we are just arguing all the time. We want to deliver clear results. For example, we need to reform the track access charge system so that we can also ensure affordability on the railways. Yes, we are facing really big challenges, But now, with the Special Fund, we also have the means to tackle them. Even so, it won’t succeed without a huge amount of effort.

Reichenbach: How will you prevent most of this money just trickling away?

We are certainly aware of the risk that a lot this money could just go towards inflation and rising construction costs. The main instruments for ensuring that projects do not get out of hand and that costs do not continue to rise are the Infraplan and the increased planning capability provided by the fund, in addition to measures to reduce bureaucracy and speed up planning which we want to initiate. This means that have a time perspective over several years and that we know how much capacity we need and where. The industry can therefore use this as a planning basis. Many of the costs were also due to the fact that funds were often only available at short notice and they also had to be spent at equally short notice. The refurbishment of the Riedbahn line is a good example. Basically, the construction companies could call up any price they wanted. In some cases, they didn’t even have the capacities They had to withdraw staff and materials from other projects and perhaps pay penalties there. Now however, by making it possible to plan financial resources and projects over a longer period of time, we want to achieve greater cost containment and to expand capacities in a targeted manner.

Reichenbach: 500 billion euros sounds like a lot of money at first. But this sum is spread over three legislative periods, isn’t it?

Yes, and in addition 100 billion euros has already been reserved for the federal states and municipalities. However, 100 billion euros is also available from the Climate and Transformation Fund, and some of this money can be spent on transportation projects. Actually, we could easily spend the entire amount on transportation alone. The demand certainly exists. But there are other areas in need of refurbishment that would justifiably like to have a share of the Special Fund: hospitals, kindergartens, and schools, for example. So the Special Fund will not solve all our problems, but it will help enormously to reduce the renovation backlog.

Heintzel: When deciding on how to spend the 500 billion, you also need to consider that you want to focus more intensely on the electrification of vehicles and local public transportation.  

This is also something that the Special Fund needs to provide for. In this case, we are hoping to achieve synergy effects between the electrification of transportation and the general energy transition measures. The expansion of the power grid and the energy transition go hand in hand.

Reichenbach: Our next question fits quite well into this context. You have set yourself the goal of more strongly promoting a hydrogen filling station infrastructure for commercial vehicles. What will this look like in detail?

We cannot yet fully predict which alternative technologies will prevail in commercial vehicles and to what extent. As far as passenger cars are concerned, I am absolutely convinced that they will be very, very predominantly battery-electric in the future, with perhaps a few specific niches covered by other drive systems. For commercial vehicles, however, the situation is not so clear-cut, as it also depends on the application that they are required for. I would refer you to the AFIR, the EU’s Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation, which clearly regulates what infrastructure needs to be deployed by the German federal government. We should be guided by this regulation in order to set common Europe-wide standards.

Heintzel: If you think about the topic of megawatt charging: you need 1.5 to 2 MW of power per truck. If 20 trucks arrive at a large charging station at the same time, how is a power line supposed to provide 40 MW of power?

That's correct, it's quite a challenge. But the first steps have already been taken. During the previous government, we already initiated a call for tenders for a national fast charging network for trucks, the “Deutschlandnetz”, and so that is underway. At the same time, I am hearing feedback from the industry that depot charging in particular is becoming very important. Trucking companies who have introduced electric trucks are also predominantly those who operate within a certain, limited radius, for example from the Berlin area to the center of Berlin and back again. We can certainly electrify applications like these. This would also have a huge impact on climate targets. With depot charging, the vehicle fleet could be organized in such a way that excessively high power lines are not required.

Reichenbach: From trucks back to cars: according to a study by the BDEW, on average only 3% of the charging points in some regions are occupied at any given time. So why is your coalition still supporting an even faster expansion of the charging infrastructure?

There are great regional differences in the utilization of charging station capacity. It remains a chicken-and-egg dilemma. For many consumers, the availability of a nationwide charging infrastructure is a game changer for their decision on whether to buy an electric car. If they see that all the charging points are occupied, this could deter them from doing so. In urban centers in particular, many people are afraid of not being able to find a free charging point as the parking situation is already very difficult as it is. This is also due to the fact that a lot of people use the spaces just for parking, without actually charging the car. Unfortunately, this perceived reality takes precedence over the statistics. Therefore, average figures are only of limited use in the mobility transition.

Heintzel: Unfortunately, in many cases you are only allowed to leave your electric car at a charging point for a maximum of two hours. In other words, you can’t come home, say, from the gym at ten in the evening, plug the car in, and pick it up again at seven the next morning.

That's true, it's not yet a good solution. And apartment buildings are also still a challenge for the charging infrastructure. They need to provide much more power than single-family homes. In some cases, a second power line has to be laid, and things start to get really expensive. So there’s still a lot to be done. We have also agreed on that in the coalition agreement. Nevertheless, I believe that, alongside subsidizing electric vehicles, the charging infrastructure is the key to increasing the number of electric vehicles on the market.

Reichenbach: What do you mean exactly by subsidizing vehicles? The concept of social leasing in Paris, for example? 

Yes. We decided in the coalition agreement to make it possible also for people on low and middle incomes to be able to afford an electric car. Two weeks ago, I organized a parliamentary breakfast meeting on the subject of social leasing, similar to the French model. It really went down very well. The funding pot was empty straight away, which proves that the demand is there. The exciting thing about this model is that we are also helping electric cars to make a breakthrough in the compact and medium-size segment. At the moment, electric cars tend to be more in the luxury segment. But soon, we will see a few new smaller German models also coming onto the market, such as the ID.1 and ID.2 from Volkswagen, which are in the lower price segment. However, most people in Germany tend to buy a used car, and it’s usually a compact model. There is not really a used car market for these at the moment, so we also need to have more people buying or leasing a new car. As a Social Democrat, the issue of affordable mobility is also important to me when it comes to electric cars. We need a used car market for this. The social leasing model closes this gap and is therefore a good industrial policy approach for Germany.

Heintzel: I must say, however, that I find this reference to Germany a little difficult. I worked for a Japanese manufacturer for a long time and tried to get the German press more interested in hybrid vehicles and fuel cell cars. What is a German car, what is European, and what is Korean? 

The car should be manufactured in Europe, no matter what the brand is. What I’m concerned about is the industrial policy approach and jobs. A Tesla from Brandenburg would therefore be eligible for a subsidy. Anything else would not comply with EU regulations, as it would distort competition. One way to achieve this would be through environmental scores.

Reichenbach and Heintzel: Isabel Cademartori, thank you very much for this highly informative interview.

You can read more of this interview in ATZworldwide 9/2025, which will be published on August 29, 2025.