The Rheinmetall Group, together with TankE GmbH and the city of Cologne, is starting a pilot project to test loading curbs in public traffic areas. The aim of the project is to integrate and pilot the loading curbs developed by Rheinmetall in the city. The aim is to validate the acceptance as well as the urban development and design advantages. After signing a corresponding declaration of intent in May 2023, the official start of the roll-out on site took place today (April 25, 2024). The loading curbs will initially be extensively tested in real operation at two locations in the city.
Ascan Egerer, councilor for mobility for the city of Cologne: “We are a city in transition and would like to actively shape modern, environmentally friendly mobility. To this end, we would like to implement future-oriented concepts to overcome the challenges at an early stage – together with our partners. For us, the loading curb has the great advantage that it can be used in the existing infrastructure of the public street space, apart from the connection box. This benefits important issues such as the necessary free sidewalk widths, visual axes, avoidable superstructure of media supplies in the sidewalk, and monument protection in planning and implementation. Curb technology is therefore much less complicated than a conventional charging station. We’re excited about the experience.”
Christoph Müller, Head of the Power Systems Division at Rheinmetall AG: “The loading curb we developed has a big advantage. It can one-to-one replace or upgrade the infrastructure that already exists everywhere in the street space. There is no additional space requirement in the already narrow street space. Our pioneering charging curbs help solve a major problem in the transformation towards more e-mobility. They blend almost invisibly into the cityscape. We are very grateful for the high level of commitment shown by everyone involved who made today’s appointment possible. Because we have no time to lose on our way to modern, environmentally friendly mobility.”
Stephan Segbers, Director of Sales and Energy Procurement at RheinEnergie AG, the parent company of TankE GmbH, is pleased: “Today is another milestone in the series of innovative mobility projects that we have developed in Cologne in recent years. With the TankE we are creating urban development-friendly alternatives for charging electric cars in public transport areas. We are proud to be testing another innovative technology together with Rheinmetall and the city of Cologne and expanding our expertise in the development of charging infrastructure.”
Climate change and climate protection, mobility, population growth, economic change and digitalization will present the city of Cologne, the fourth largest city in Germany, with the diverse challenges of a growing metropolis in the coming years. The city wants to actively shape this process and develop forward-looking concepts to deal with it at an early stage. The charging infrastructure plays a key role in the mobility transition through electromobility. The Federal Government’s ambitious goal of 15 million electric cars by 2030 can only be achieved with a corresponding expansion in proportion to the expansion of the fleet of electric vehicles, as significantly more people will switch to electric cars in the future, even without their own parking and charging facilities. By 2030, the need for public charging infrastructure is estimated at around one million charging points in Germany.
The intelligent use of existing urban infrastructure with high charging performance makes the Rheinmetall charging curb a space-saving alternative to a charging station. This solves the problem of the lack of space in urban areas for the quick, flexibly scalable and cost-effective installation of freely accessible public charging points. This unique selling point was crucial for the city and the network operator to win the contract.
SOURCE: Rheinmetall
