SMART/LAB: Charging Without Borders
Interview with Dr. Mark Steffen Walcher, Managing Director of smartlab Innovationsgesellschaft mbH
Three public utilities, one idea, twelve years of development: smartlab Innovationsgesellschaft has revolutionized the German electric charging infrastructure. Starting as a research project in Aachen, Duisburg, and Osnabrück, it now connects 27,000 of its own charging points with a network of 280 public utilities. Managing Director Dr. Mark Steffen Walcher explains how his team made the vision of limitless charging a reality and why the company continues to pursue research despite being a market leader. The next big step: Conquering Europe.
Wirtschaftsforum: Mr. Dr. Walcher, how has smartlab developed over the past few years - and which decisions were influential in that process?
Dr. Mark Steffen Walcher: Smartlab was founded in the early 2010s as a think tank by three different municipal utilities – Osnabrück, Duisburg, and Aachen. We were supposed to deal with future topics that were not yet market-ready: electromobility, hydrogen, Smart Street, Smart Home. The idea was to create a speedboat aside from the normal structures. I joined after two years, brought in because of my experience with electromobility in the Stuttgart region, where we had distributed 500 vehicles to the public at that time. We quickly focused on electromobility and set aside the other topics for the time being. The breakthrough was the networking of various municipal utilities with each other – at the time, it was revolutionary to think that I could use my Aachen card to charge electricity at a public charging station in Duisburg. That was the nucleus for the company today.
Wirtschaftsforum: How big is the company now? How many employees do you have?
Dr. Mark Steffen Walcher: We currently have about 120 employees working for us and our subsidiary e-clearing.net, which is responsible for the European market. We are growing very dynamically. From the initial few charging points, there are now 27,000 of our own, and we collaborate with 280 municipal utilities and over 200 other companies that primarily provide their charging infrastructure to the public.
Wirtschaftsforum: Can you explain the system? How does it technically work?
Dr. Mark Steffen Walcher: Imagine it this way: You always have a charging product – a card or app, either from the car manufacturer, from the municipal utility, or from other providers. Then there are different infrastructure operators of charging stations. We enable you to charge everywhere with your card without having to worry about different systems.
We make B2B contracts with all operators and handle the so-called settlement – that is, the billing. At the same time, our municipal utility partners can operate their pillars in their own look and feel. In Aachen they are orange, in Duisburg green, in Munich blue – but behind it all is always our system. The special feature is: You can not only charge at our own 27,000 charging points, but at about 180,000 charging stations nationwide – including competitors like Shell or Aral. Technically, it involves the exchange of three simple data sets: authentication, electricity quantity, and location data.
Wirtschaftsforum: What differentiates smartlab from other providers in this highly dynamic competition?
Dr. Mark Steffen Walcher: Honestly, the individual features are almost the same at all providers in the end – it's like with mobile phones, whether Samsung or Apple, in the end, for example, you just want to make video calls. What really sets us apart is our huge network and the fact that we have been on the market for twelve years. We have these 480 municipal utilities and companies, have now been bought by DKV, and have simply built up this solid network. Every year there are new fancy startups with flat rates or free offers that then have a higher public impact. But mostly they disappear without making a sound. The huge difference is our experience, our established network and that we have been continuously growing for twelve years. We can't do everything – but what we can do, we do really well.
Wirtschaftsforum: What is the future direction for smartlab?
Dr. Mark Steffen Walcher: Our goal is clear: We aim to expand our market leadership in charging services from Germany to Europe – together with our parent company DKV. Countries like the Netherlands, Austria, and Belgium are already connected through our platform e-clearing.net. Millions of transactions are already running there. The next step: On May 20, we are launching our new app, which will better represent this European network. Additionally, at the end of the year, we are introducing a new tool for automated charging billing for businesses to the market.
Wirtschaftsforum: The last five years have been marked by crises. How have these affected your business?
Dr. Mark Steffen Walcher: I am generally optimistic. Electromobility has been growing steadily since I started working in this field in 2013. The last five years have brought rather positive changes for our company - we have grown drastically. During the Corona pandemic, there were fewer charging processes, but the business field has continued to grow. The German automotive industry has caught up after being left behind by Tesla. Regarding subsidy programs: I have even become an opponent of them, because the automotive industry often exploits them. Now, prices at VW and others are dropping drastically, because fleet CO2 emissions must be reduced.