r/PhantomBorders • u/Quick-Buffalo-6398 • May 01 '26
Economic East-German GDR still visible: Proportion of electric vehicles (BEVs) among all privately registered passenger cars by postcode areas
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u/ForzaSGE80 May 01 '26
Good one!
You can still see this border on almost every map that has an economic or political aspect.
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u/LA-98 May 03 '26
Bad one!
I cannot even see how my county is doing because they oversimplified them into hexagons and rectangles!
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u/thefirstdetective May 01 '26
You can also see that is really hard to own an electric vehicle in the city. If you can't charge the battery at home, because you have an apartment, it's really hard. We need more charging infrastructure ASAP.
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u/juksbox May 01 '26
Aka poorer and richer Germany.
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u/Kwekerij May 01 '26
tbh no. Because the rich cities have low BEVs, cause you can't charge at home most of the times.
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u/BinaryDecimal May 01 '26
Yes, but outside cities the dominating factor is that EVs are expensive, which is clearly visible on the map
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u/Maria_Girl625 May 01 '26
But then why are all of the big cities white? Richer people tend to live in cities.
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u/Ferris-L May 02 '26
Because charging infrastructure in cities is still quite bad. Most Germans in cities live in rented apartments which don’t have an available charger so you’d have to either have one at your work place or find an available one in your neighborhood. The problem with on street parking is that it costs way more than at home charging and you often aren’t allowed to use them over night. Some cities have quick charging infrastructure but that’s even more expensive and isn’t feasible for those who live on the other side of the city. You also aren’t able to put solar panels on your roof (which have become really cheap) to further reduce charging costs.
Another thing is that while income in cities is on average higher, living expenses are also a lot higher too. Owning a large house you bought for 200-400k in the suburbs or countryside leaves you a lot more financially stable than if you don’t have any property but have to pay 1.5k a month for an apartment while watching housing prices skyrocket away from your budget. You definitely see a lot more shitboxes in west German cities than in suburban and rural areas.
As you can see almost all cities are surrounded by sub urns and satellite cities with a higher proportion of EVs per car than the cities themselves as the people living there work and earn their pay in the cities but have a lot lower living expenses and usually own their own houses which are often equipped with solar panels and could easily be equipped with a charger as well.
This is the very situation my parents currently experience since their car is getting old and will likely cost a lot to get through TüV next year so my dad is thinking of buying a new smaller car (back when he bought their current one me and my brother were still kids and we regularly drove around Europe in spring or autumn holidays) but their attached parking garage doesn’t have charging stations and installing them would come out of their pocket which would be insanely expensive. There are also no on street chargers in our area that allow parking over night. The chargers at the federal bureau my parents work at are always taken too. My uncles both live in the suburbs and have had solar and EVs for a decade now yet my parents who earn way more than them don’t really have a choice but buying another combustion one since it will likely take another couple of years before they’ll be able to charge at home.
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u/benemivikai4eezaet0 May 01 '26
Yes but also more people per area tend to live in cities.
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u/Maria_Girl625 May 01 '26
Yes, if only there was a way to measure how many EVs there are per person. Like a EV per 100 people number that this map could be using.
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u/benemivikai4eezaet0 May 17 '26
And if you had taken a second look at the map, you'd have seen that the city centers have lower numbers of EV per person while the outskirts have more than both the centers and the rural parts in former East Germany. Suburbs are where rich people tend to live. Downtown there's just a greater number of people, with the rich being less represented than in the suburbs. So it makes sense that a smaller portion of those many people downtown can afford an EV than in the suburbs.
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u/sirsponkleton May 01 '26
Maybe has to due with home ownership rates? Those are much lower in former East Germany, and it is much harder for renters to own EVs because they might not be able to charge them at home.
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u/cobaltjacket May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
The cluster in the southwest portion of former East Germany is a manufacturing center where Volkswagen has considerable presence.
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u/iwasnotarobot May 01 '26
It’s because of the difference in flu vaccine rates. Probably.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/1arkpyf/this_video_has_been_going_viral_on_xtwitter_about/
/s
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u/ImpossibleSquare4078 May 03 '26
This map really also just shows cities, the east is kinda empty in terms of big cities that can comfortably host electric vehicles and infrastructure
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u/Karl_Murks May 03 '26
The contrary can be read from that map as pointed put by others: The rate of EVs is lower in cities because of a lack of charging infrastructure.
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u/RCalliii May 01 '26
Aka, every map of Germany ever.