15 million electric cars are expected to be on German roads by 2030. The federal government therefore wants to significantly expand the charging infrastructure. But what about the nearby charging stations?

In the coalition agreement, the federal government has formulated ambitious goals for electromobility. By 2030, around 15 million electric cars are expected to be on German roads.

One million charging stations are also to be built so that they can also access electricity on the go. But with the current figures, German road traffic is still a long way off.

This is the state of electromobility in Germany

At the beginning of 2023, road traffic in Germany not only set a record. For the first time, around 48.76 million vehicles were registered as many cars as never before.

And the number of registered electric cars was also able to climb to a new high. Because as of January 1, 2023, 1.01 million electric cars were registered in Germany. A milestone, because at the end of 2022 the one million mark was broken for the first time.

The charging stations for electric cars are also making steady progress. In the second quarter of 2023, the number of charging stations in Germany was around 33,100. An increase of around 6,000 stations compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

How many charging points are there actually?

However, the number of charging stations in Germany does not provide direct information on how many cars can actually be charged there. Because there are usually several charging points at a charging station – drivers can therefore connect more than one car to the electricity at the same time.

According to the map and navigation service Here Technologies, Germany currently has 105,236 public charging points. According to the provider, an average of 27 electric cars share a public charging station in Germany. The Spiegel has again visualized Here’s map on its website.

For comparison: In the Netherlands there are only seven electric cars per public charging station, in Luxembourg eleven. With 28 e-cars per column, France is just behind Germany.

Regional differences: nearby charging stations

The picture of charging stations in Germany is meanwhile extremely unevenly distributed. Here, conurbations and large cities in particular determine the list of charging stations per ten square kilometers.

Stuttgart tops the list with 23.2 charging locations per ten square kilometers. It is followed by Munich with 20.3 and Regensburg with 19.5. This is followed by many other cities, which occupy the first forty places in the ranking.

Mettmann in North Rhine-Westphalia is at the top of the counties with 5.9 charging locations. The district of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte brings up the rear. Although this is the largest in Germany in terms of area, it only has 0.1 locations for public charging.

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Only a year ago, Staffbase became Saxony’s first billion-dollar startup. Dozens of employees have now had to leave the company, and one group in particular seems to be affected.

Just over a year ago, the Chemnitz software startup Staffbase had something to celebrate: The startup, which develops an app for employee communication in companies, completed a prestigious round of financing. Investors transferred 106 million euros at the time, and Staffbase’s valuation then climbed over the one billion dollar mark, according to its own statements. The startup, founded in 2014, not only rose to become a unicorn. It was also the first of its kind in the state of Saxony.

Now, however, Staffbase also has to face the harsh reality of the tech scene. As found out by the start-up scene, around 90 employees have been laid off. The company confirmed this on Friday on request. Affected employees have signed severance agreements. A spokeswoman justified the step by wanting to reorganize the business in order to reduce “complexity”. “The central part of the restructuring is the consolidation of our product development at the Berlin and Saxony locations. We are continuing to build staff there while we close other locations.”

Layoffs probably mainly affect employees in subsidiary companies

The company is likely to allude to its most recent acquisitions. In the past three years, Staffbase had acquired several competitors. For example, the Canadian startup Bananatag, the Finnish software provider Valo Solutions and the Koblenz-based company Dirico. Staffbase did not comment on whether and to what extent the layoffs primarily affected employees of these companies. However, current entries on the employer rating portal Kununu suggest so.

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Unprecedented wave of layoffs: These startups have recently had layoffs

Staffbase joins the increasing number of startups that have had to cut their staff due to cost pressures. Investors have become increasingly cautious, partly because of concerns about inflation and the war in Ukraine. Or they only participate on terms that do not appear very attractive for the startups. That’s why startups like McMakler and Taxfix only cut jobs at the beginning of this week.

Worry lines appear on the forehead of the majority of homeowners. This is because gas or oil are used for heating in private homes and also in apartment buildings. Some people may have had a gas heating system installed instead of an oil heating system not too long ago and have already spent quite a bit of money on it. With regard to climate neutrality, it certainly makes sense to take a closer look at the CO² emissions.
Those affected therefore ask themselves what will change and when the changes should take effect. The financial aspect also plays an important role.

When should the new building energy law passed by the federal cabinet be passed?

According to the latest information, according to the plans of Economics Minister Robert Habeck, the Building Energy Act (GEG) is to be passed before the parliamentary summer break on July 7, 2023. After that, it only has to go through the Federal Council. However, the FDP doubts that this schedule can be met.

Because since Patrick Graichen is no longer business secretary, there is no longer a central contact person.

The FDP considers it impossible to pass the law at this point in time. In addition, there are still about 100 questions for the group that have not yet been answered. That is reason enough why deliberations on the law have not begun.

In contrast, the traffic light accuses the FDP that the justification is just a tactic to delay the decision of the GEG.

What can homeowners do?

Certain deadlines are specified in the amendment to the Building Energy Act. From 2024, 65 percent renewable energy will be a must for newly installed heating systems. However, this does not apply to existing heating systems. Furthermore, from 2045 onwards, no more fossil fuels may be used for heating in heating systems.

The bill means for homeowners that existing gas and oil heating systems will not be outright banned. However, there are some changes coming to consumers. If possible, from 2024, according to the Building Energy Act, newly installed heating systems should use 65 percent renewable energies for heating.

This should apply to all homeowners who are under 80 years old. This step is said to be the beginning of the end of gas and oil heating. All heating systems should no longer use fossil fuels by 2045. During this waiting period, existing defective gas and oil heating systems may be repaired and do not have to be replaced.

Which transition periods are planned exactly?

Even if there is an agreement with the federal government regarding the ban on new oil and gas heating systems, the key statement is that heating systems in buildings that are installed after 2024 must largely use renewable energies.

However, the actually intended obligation that functioning heating systems that are operated with oil or gas must also be replaced is waived.

There is also a transitional period of 3 years for heaters that break down after 2024. If homeowners are over 80 years old, the regulation of the 65 percent clause does not apply either.
If, on the other hand, the house is sold or inherited, the new law and a transitional period of 2 years apply to the new owner. There is also a hardship exception regarding profitability. This applies when there is no reasonable relationship between the value of the building and the amount to be invested.

The replacement of oil and gas heating with heat pumps is not specified. So it is up to the homeowner to decide whether to use a heat pump or other technologies to heat the home.

Is there financial support for replacing oil and gas heating with a heat pump?

Anyone who is thinking about taking the step of replacing the old oil and gas heating system with a heat pump can receive a so-called heating exchange bonus from the state. However, conditions must be met for this.
When it comes to state subsidies, there is sometimes a nice sum, which means that a subsidy of up to 40 percent is possible. If you replace your old oil heating system, you can benefit from a double subsidy. For example, there is basic funding for a heat pump, and federal funding is also planned for efficient buildings and is called BEG.

These are the most important facts that everyone should know:

• The basic subsidy is available for regenerative heat generators such as a heat pump
• In addition to the basic subsidy, a heating exchange bonus can be granted
• It is important for the application that a specialist company confirms that the requirements are met
• The basic subsidy and the heating exchange bonus together result in a higher subsidy amount
• In order to receive all funding, certain requirements must be met

This is how the application for a subsidy for a heating replacement works

Anyone who would like to receive the heating exchange bonus of an additional 10 percentage points in addition to the basic subsidy of 25 percent and replace the old oil heating system with a heat pump can also receive a heat pump bonus of 5 percent, which results in a total subsidy of 40 percent.
It is helpful to have a specialist company or energy consultant at your side when filing the application. Advice is also available from some banks. In the first step, offers are obtained and an expert for energy efficiency is commissioned.

The application for funding is then submitted online via the BAFA portal.

This is followed by the commissioning and the contract for the implementation of the measures. Proof of use can be submitted online via the BAFA portal. The Federal Office of Economics and Export Control examines the applications and then pays out the funding.

The new building energy law and the subsidies can certainly be an incentive to think about a new CO²-neutral heating system.

Photovoltaic system in combination with heat pump

If you want to operate the heat pump with electricity from solar modules, you should first look at the total output in kilowatts. Information about the installed inverters is also an important aspect.
These are divided into so-called string inverters and micro/module inverters. The former are connected to several solar modules, while the others are each operated on a photovoltaic module. Micro/module inverters are more expensive to purchase. However, if the solar modules are aligned differently, there can be advantages in terms of yield.

If storage is planned for the photovoltaic system, a closer look should be taken at the costs and storage capacity. When obtaining an offer for a solar system, it must be ensured that material costs and all labor costs such as installation, any scaffolding required, commissioning and the extensive registration of the system are included in the offer price.

Important: The company’s profitability calculation is often unrealistic and should be checked carefully in any case.

Researchers recently paved the way for sustainable quantum computers. Because they apparently succeeded in storing information efficiently and in a power-saving manner with the help of magnetism. Is this the way to a sustainable supercomputer?

The way we store information is constantly changing. While magnetic tapes used to be the method of choice, regular HDD hard drives replaced this storage medium in the long term.

Basically, the storage works through the magnetization of the storage medium. Nowadays, many companies therefore rely on SSDs, which are usually faster and at the same time rely on electronic storage.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have now demonstrated that the era of magnetic storage is far from over. Because they investigated how this type of storage can be instrumentalized for quantum computers in the long term. Today’s quantum computers rely on extremely thin, two-dimensional layers just a few atoms thick.

Sustainable supercomputers can already be used at room temperature

This made the development of the new methodology possible in the first place. Previous approaches have also relied on magnetism, but for the most part this required extremely low temperatures and a laboratory environment. Storage was therefore unaffordable and comparatively unsustainable.

With their new approach, however, the researchers managed to store content using magnets at room temperature. The discovery is so promising that the first application scenarios in industry or in our everyday lives could be possible in the short term.

Diverse application scenarios for new quantum memories

The 2D magnets enable the development of fast, compact and energy-efficient storage media. The application scenarios are diverse. Because in addition to being used in sensors, the storage method could also have an impact in biomedicine, surveillance, navigation and communication. But there are still some steps to be taken.

To this end, the research team would like to further optimize the method and define a practical prototype in the long term. Perhaps our future technical devices will then also have a quantum memory.

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Grilling is a lot of work for most people. Prepare the large grill with lots of charcoal, wait until the charcoal is hot and clean for a long time after grilling. And: You can usually not take the grill with you. This is exactly what Stack, the mobile and portable grill, is designed to solve. We tested the product from “The Lion’s Den”.

First, let’s look at the benefits of portable grills in general.

• Mobility: A portable grill is lightweight and easy to transport. You can take it with you everywhere, for example camping.
• Flexibility: A portable grill is often small and therefore quickly ready for grilling. So if you want to grill alone or with a few people, you can do it spontaneously.
• Versatility: There are many different types of portable grills. Some offer more than the normal grill function, such as a fire pit.
• socializing: When out with friends in the summer, a portable grill will add conviviality and good taste.

So, the key benefits of portable grills include portability, flexibility, versatility, and conviviality. There is also a special taste that the food gets from grilling.

Stack Grill Test: The mobile and portable grill with an innovative plug-in system

The inventor of the Stack Grill is Raphael Seiler from Regensburg. He always saw barbecuing as a special experience. For him it was important that the entire process of grilling – from the preparation to the gathering after the meal – should be as simple and convenient as possible. That’s exactly why he developed the Stack Grill, which you can easily convert into a warm fireplace after grilling.

Does the Stack Grill really work that easily and quickly? We tested the mobile and portable grill from The Lion’s Den.

packaging and processing

Our first impression of the Stack Grill is very positive. The grill is delivered in a practical carrying bag and the workmanship is very high quality. The bag is also one of the biggest advantages of the Stack Grill. You can easily prepare your charcoal and your lighter directly in the grill at home. Then you pack the finished grill in the bag and take it with you without getting your car or your bag dirty.

The Stack Grill weighs just under four kilos and is made of high-quality, robust stainless steel. According to the manufacturer, there is space for grilling food for up to five people on the grill surface. In our test, we grilled for three adults and filled the area well.

time and functions

Before we could use the Stack Grill for the first time, we had to read the manual in detail. The functionality, how to light the grill and how to turn it exactly, is not self-explanatory. After a short trial and error, however, it quickly becomes clear.

The charcoal is hot within ten minutes

After lighting the charcoal and the lighters, it only took about ten minutes until the grill was ready to grill. This is the biggest advantage for us, as you are ready to put the food on the grill in no time.

flexibility

The flexibility of the Stack Grill sets it apart from other portable grills. Because after grilling you can also use the grill as a fireplace. You can use the included tongs to rotate the stack 90 degrees after it has cooled and then put firewood inside.

The Stack Grill can easily be converted into a fireplace

Prize from the Stack Grill

The price of the Stack Grill is 99.99 euros. Since the grill is of high quality and cannot only be used once, the price is worth it. At best, the Stack Grill will last for many years and allow you to grill whenever you go camping or in the park.

Stack Grill in “The Lion’s Den”: Here’s how the portable grill performs

The founder of the Stack Grill can be seen in the current season of “Die Höhle der Löwen” and introduces the portable and mobile grill to the lions. You can see how the founder is doing and whether there will be a deal on April 17, 2023.

Conclusion: High-quality grill for on the go

In our test, the Stack Grill kept everything that was previously promised. The setup was quick and easy after a short reading, the bag is practical for on the go and the grill was quickly hot and ready to grill. From now on we always take the mobile grill with us to the campsite!

This post contains affiliate links for which we receive a small commission. However, this has no influence on the content of our contributions.

Also interesting:

Musk’s own investment has thus fallen to a value of $8.8 billion. Also: Nvidia is moving into the trillion club and tech heads are again warning of the annihilation of mankind by AI.

Good morning! While you slept, work continued elsewhere in the digital scene.

The top topics:

Twitter is according to the investment house Fidelity only worth a third of what Elon Musk paid for the social media platform. Fidelity recently downgraded the value of its own equity stake in the company. Musk himself has admitted in the past that he overpaid for Twitter, which he bought last October for $44 billion, including $33.5 billion in equity.

The billionaire himself recently said Twitter was worth less than half of what he paid for it. Fidelity had already reduced the value of its own stake in the short message service in November. At that time, the financial experts assumed a value of 44 percent of the purchase price. Deductions followed again in December and February. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which according to the Fidelity estimate has now also calculated the value of Musk’s investment in Twitter, came to just $8.8 billion. [Mehr bei Bloomberg]

On Founder scene: We asked an expert: which ones Healthtech-Startups do you have to know because they might grow up? We call these startups „Rising Stars“. The five insider tips from Cornelius Maaspartner at the health investor SHS, you read with us today. You will also find out why the healthcare market offers real growth potential for startups despite all the regulations. [Mehr bei Gründerszene+]

And here are the other headlines of the night:

Nvidia has made it into the exclusive club of companies worth over a trillion US dollars. Due to the boom in artificial intelligence (AI), chip demand has also increased significantly. This has pushed the shares of the US company higher over the past few days. Shares rose again on Tuesday, catapulting Nvidia’s market cap to nearly $1.026 trillion. Online retailers are also in the billionaire club Amazonthe iPhone maker Applethe software company Microsoft and the Google-Mutter Alphabet. Also the Saudi Arabian oil producer Saudi Aramco has exceeded this market value. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt]

OpenAI-CEO Sam Altman, who developed ChatGPT with his company, along with other tech executives, has again warned of the risks of AI. Together with 374 other thought leaders, he drew an apocalyptic scenario and compared the risks of AI with those of a pandemic or nuclear war. According to the experts, humanity could be annihilated. The group is concerned with regulating the new technology. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal und The Information]

the former TheranosCEO Elizabeth Holmes began her prison sentence on Tuesday. Holmes had defrauded investors and lied about the power of their company’s blood testing technology. For this she was sentenced to eleven years in prison. Actually, Holmes was hoping not to have to go to jail while she appeals her conviction. But this request was rejected. The 39-year-old has two young children with her current partner William Evans. Her second child was born earlier in the year following her November 2022 conviction. [Mehr bei CNBC]

Redundancies: The Berlin accounting startup Taxfix is laying off 20 percent of its workforce as part of a broader restructuring. According to a report by the US medium “Techcrunch”, 120 employees have to go. The cuts were announced to the workforce on Tuesday. Taxfix grew to $1 billion in value in 2022 thanks to a popular mobile app that helps consumers with tax filing. Only two months ago it became known that the company’s Stuttgart competitor control boat takes over. [Mehr bei Techcrunch]

Tesla‘s shares rose on Tuesday after CEO Elon Musk met with China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang. Beijing wants to flaunt its openness to foreign business, and Musk has reportedly announced further expansion of business in China. According to the minister, China’s electric vehicle market has “broad prospects for development.” He stressed that China will continue to open up and create a better market-oriented business environment for foreign companies like Tesla. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s statement, Musk praised the Chinese people and China’s achievements. [Mehr bei CNBC]

Twitter is due to submit its bills to the cloud database provider several weeks before the live event with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Redis have not paid more. DeSantis was scheduled to use Twitter Spaces to announce his candidacy for US President, but the event was disrupted by numerous technical issues. Redis builds software that handles high-traffic internet events. [Mehr bei The Information]

Our reading tip on Gründerszene: First, the new startup of the Wunderlist founder was hyped. After a mass layoff in 2022, things are quiet Pitch become. Now there are extensive business figures for the first time Christian Rebers Powerpoint-Rivalen. [Mehr bei Gründerszene+]

And a word on our own: Today is the last day of “while you slept”. If you didn’t know, we’ve created the daily news overview for you from Australia – so you could wake up early in the morning with the most important news from the tech and startup industry. Thank you again to all our loyal readers. Greetings to you all one last time from Sydney.

Happy Wednesday!

Your Gründerszene editors

“In Web3, the creator gets a new role and can monetize their content in the long term. And new platforms are emerging that are built in a distributed manner so that users can participate directly,” says Web3 expert Peter Grosskopf in the Web3 study: “What’s in store for the media industry?” by XPLR: MEDIA in Bavaria. The experts agree that a completely new era is dawning with Web3 for creators.

Web3 – decentralized and closer to the user

Web3 can be identified as a possible counter-proposal to the current stage of the Internet: It is intended to break up existing hierarchical structures and install decentralized mechanisms at neuralgic points that cannot be controlled by individual companies or individuals. Instead, infrastructures should be created that, in principle, anyone can provide, use, help shape and expand – and whose existence does not depend on or can be controlled by individual key authorities.

An infrastructure without middlemen means the chance for creators to establish a much more direct relationship with readers, viewers and listeners. This allows media companies and individual media professionals to use alternative or even their own channels and services to reach their target groups without losing support and revenue structures. The resulting quasi-friendly relationship is an elementary part of the creator economy.

What Web3 has in store for the Creator Economy

The creator economy stands for the commercialization of services that influencers and co. offer their audience. Creators earn money via platforms like TikTok, Instagram or YouTube and act as a kind of one-man media company: They create, distribute and monetize content.

The decentralization of Web3 and the new infrastructures emerging there offer the Creator Economy new ways of distribution and monetization. For example, donations and start-up financing without traditional intermediaries such as credit card companies, payment service providers or banks are conceivable. A connection to established, group-controlled platforms such as YouTube, Twitch or Instagram is no longer without alternative.

The power of communities

The open structure of Web3 also promotes the formation of communities and interest groups. They can form independently of the usual platforms and in the next step form their own economies, which in turn are of interest to creators.

Decentralized platforms such as Discord and Slack have been used by communities in various media industries, such as games, for years. There, communities gather around specific topics or around creators. Incentives for members via crypto tokens or NFTs inspire the expansion of these economies and make the respective creators and their content more well-known and relevant.

What does this mean for traditional media?

At the same time, the possibilities of Web3 mean that Web2 and its actors are becoming less important. Platforms like Facebook are being replaced by decentralized, self-organized platforms and are losing traction over the long term. Vendors who once held the authority to publish content are losing authority. This affects both the web publications of magazines and platforms for video and audio content.

This poses an enormous challenge for many established media companies: They have to adapt their often stiff organizational structures to the agile new structures of Web3.

Collaborations matter

Web3 will remain and will develop and establish itself over the next few years. Media companies have two options: risk losing their importance or dare to take their first steps on the Web3. If your own company structures do not have the necessary agility and the team does not yet have any know-how, there are alternatives. For example, draw on the expertise of external experts who have to take shorter decision-making paths.

The Web3 is a collaborative construct, so a lack of knowledge or manpower is no reason not to try to get started. Instead, you can put the responsibility in experienced hands, break new ground together and explore the opportunities of Web3.

You can get more insights in the complete study by XPLR: MEDIA in Bavaria, which you can download here for free.

Find out more here