If you’re building HGV charging in Germany, finding people who can get a site connected, secured and funded is not easy. Few candidates have worked across grid, land and logistics, and you’re competing for them with battery storage developers.
Meanwhile, the network those people are meant to build is still thin. On 1 July 2026, only 154 public sites in Germany let an HGV charge without uncoupling its trailer.
That’s out of 699 locations an HGV can use at all, according to the eTrucker app. At another 158, uncoupling is recommended but charging is possible when the site isn’t busy. At the other 387, the trailer always has to come off and be parked nearby.
Seven of the 154 have at least one Megawatt Charging System (MCS) connector, the new truck-specific standard.
Federal funding is oversubscribed
The Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV) opened a €1bn, four-year programme in May 2026. It covers chargers, but also grid connection, battery storage and load management. The first three calls launched with €200m.
On 5 August 2026 the grant agency Projektträger Jülich (PtJ) reported:
- about 380 applications to the public charging call, asking for around €500m against about €83m available.
- about 1,050 applications to the call for private depots, open to all companies, asking for around €400m against about €67m.
PtJ said its checks weren’t complete.
The funding guideline states its aim: to prompt private investment that is not yet economic because utilisation is low and investment costs are high.
Projects are ranked mainly on subsidy per kilowatt of charging power, which carries 70% of the priority score in the public call. Grid connection is an eligible cost, so a site with an expensive connection has to ask for more per kilowatt and ranks lower. That last step is our inference from the published rules.
PtJ says further calls will follow; as of 28 October 2026 its page lists all three calls as closed, and we couldn’t find a date for the next.
Grid connections and land set the pace
The energy industry association BDEW said on 14 September 2026 that faster, simpler grid connections and better access to suitable land are among the conditions still missing. It adds that truck charging competes with data centres, large heat pumps, storage and industry for connection capacity.
BDEW is a trade body, so treat that as an industry position, not a measurement.
Public land is moving on a separate track. On 30 June 2026 the federal motorway company Autobahn GmbH awarded five lots covering 124 unattended rest areas, with 836 charging points planned: 447 MCS and 389 Combined Charging System (CCS). The tender for roughly 230 attended rest areas is still being prepared.
The federal network is designed to meet about two-thirds of expected motorway demand, and the government expects the other third on private land near motorways. Operators who want that third need a site and a connection first.
The roles this creates
A funded project still needs people who can deliver it. These are the profiles we’d expect operators to compete for:
- Grid connection managers who can run high-voltage applications with network operators.
- Site acquisition and property leads who can secure truck-capable land.
- Funding and project finance specialists who can price a bid in euros per kilowatt.
- Commercial leads who understand fleet operations, including the 45-minute break after 4.5 hours of driving that public charging is built around.
- Construction and commissioning managers with experience of high-power direct current (DC) sites.
Operators building these teams are drawing on the same pool as battery storage developers, a pressure we covered in our piece on Germany’s new grid connection process.
Where we come in
SR2 Clean Energy recruits engineering and commercial people for clean energy businesses in Germany, with a team in Munich.
If you’re planning a delivery team ahead of the next funding call, we can talk through which of these roles to hire first and what the market looks like for each.
