Public-sector fleet readies tender for one of its largest internal EV charging programmes
A national waterways authority is preparing a 345-site charging network to electrify its vehicle fleet, signalling a new scale of public EV infrastructure.
A national waterways authority is preparing a 345-site charging network to electrify its vehicle fleet, signalling a new scale of public EV infrastructure.
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A federal waterways authority in Germany is preparing a large-scale roll-out of electric vehicle charging across around 345 sites, aiming to electrify its entire vehicle fleet and bundling planning, construction and long-term operation into a single programme. The move points to a new phase in public-sector fleet decarbonisation, where charging becomes core operational infrastructure rather than a side project.
On 12th December 2025, the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Wasserstraßen- und Schifffahrtsamt (Waterways and Shipping Office) Mosel-Saar-Lahn, published a prior information notice for charging facilities for e-vehicles. The administration plans, constructs and operates charging infrastructure at approximately 345 properties, with the explicit goal of electrifying its vehicle fleet.
The intention goes beyond scattered charging points. The notice signals a systematic electrification of the vehicle fleet of the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration, spread across hundreds of locations. For suppliers, this is not a single depot or campus but a dispersed, operationally critical network to be designed and supported over time.
The scale stands out within the current wave of European public charging tenders. Only a handful of concessions match or exceed it, such as the Walloon regional programme launched in July 2025 by IDETA, which covers the installation, maintenance and operation of 1,724 electric vehicle charging stations across multiple municipalities, or the city-wide plan in Wilhelmshaven, where a notice in December 2025 seeks the construction and operation of public infrastructure with at least 230 charging points.
The waterways authority plans to divide the work into several lots, distinguishing between infrastructure planning and facility operation. At the same time, the scope spans the full life cycle: planning, construction and operation of the charging facilities. That combination of breadth and lotting is likely to shape the supplier field.
Other recent procurements show how public buyers are separating and sequencing these tasks. In July 2025, Wasserverband Eifel-Rur sought planning and construction services for charging infrastructure across its association area, specifying needs assessment, examination of variants, detailed execution planning, coordination with network operators and construction supervision. In November 2025, the city of Detmold went to market for planning services only, covering charging points, electrical distribution networks, load management and a backend for data processing and billing at a construction yard.
By contrast, some contracting authorities focus narrowly on enabling works or pure build. The city of Schwelm, for example, tendered in August 2025 for civil engineering works such as empty conduits and core drilling to prepare a technical operations site for later charging infrastructure. In December 2025, an industrial buyer, ORLEN Unipetrol, launched a contract focused on construction and engineering activities for the installation of charging stations and associated facilities.
The German waterways project, by bringing planning, construction and operation together but splitting tasks into lots, appears designed to attract both specialist engineering consultancies and operators able to take on long-term responsibility for a fragmented portfolio of sites.
Although the waterways notice targets a specific administrative fleet, it sits within a broader shift towards electrified public transport and service vehicles, where charging infrastructure is increasingly treated as strategic energy and IT infrastructure.
Public transport operators provide some of the clearest examples. In June 2025, Transports publics fribourgeois Trafic in Switzerland published a contract for supplying and maintaining electric bus chargers to support the decarbonisation of its vehicle fleet, with explicit attention to technical, environmental and social standards. In July 2025, Verkehrsbetriebe Burgenland in Austria sought delivery and installation of charging components, commissioning of new systems and a software solution for load management, underlining how power optimisation is now part of the core requirement.
German operators are moving in a similar direction. SWU Verkehr issued a notice in November 2025 for charging infrastructure to support 20 vehicles, including two pantograph chargers for electric buses and 18 CCS type 2 plug chargers. PaderSprinter in Paderborn followed later that month with a procurement covering planning, delivery and installation of charging infrastructure for electric buses, plus maintenance services. Regionalverkehr Köln, in a prior information notice in October 2025, went even further, framing its project as the delivery, assembly and commissioning of complete electrical systems for a new operating yard for hydrogen fuel cell and battery-electric buses, including medium-voltage fields, transformers, low-voltage distributions, DC chargers and a load and charging management system.
Beyond transport, government campuses are adapting their power systems to support EV charging. In October 2025, the Land Schleswig-Holstein announced plans to upgrade the power supply and expand charging infrastructure for electric vehicles at the Düsternbrook government campus, combining the renewal of ageing electrical systems with the integration of photovoltaic systems.
Seen alongside these examples, the waterways administration’s 345-property programme suggests that fleet electrification is now reshaping how public bodies manage depots, yards and administrative sites, from grid connections and on-site generation to software for load management and billing – even where those elements are not yet fully specified in a prior information notice.
The German waterways plan is clearly focused on an internal fleet rather than a public charging network. Yet it emerges against a backdrop of growing use of concessions and delegated management for public, user-facing charging infrastructure.
Several municipalities and regional bodies have opted to have private partners finance, install and operate public charging infrastructure in return for usage revenues and, in some cases, location rents. In the Walloon Region, the IDETA concession from July 2025 covers installation, maintenance and operation of 1,724 charging stations, with requirements on safe charging, real-time user information and ongoing maintenance. In Switzerland, the municipality of Richterswil launched a notice in November 2025 offering concessions for public charging stations in municipal car parks, with concessionaires required to implement and manage the infrastructure and pay an annual location rent.
Other cities are taking the same route at a smaller scale. Wavre in Belgium, in October 2025, sought a concession to replace five existing charging stations and install 29 new ones, covering operation, management, maintenance and monitoring. The French ski resort of Courchevel, in a notice from July 2025, set up a public service delegation for the design, installation, operation, maintenance and renewal of charging stations in specified car parks, explicitly inviting candidates to propose additional deployments and technical specifications over the contract term. The Department of Sarthe, in October 2025, coordinated a multi-municipal framework for the supply, installation, maintenance and supervision of charging infrastructure across several municipalities.
Within Germany, the city of Wilhelmshaven went to market in December 2025 for the construction and operation of public charging stations for electric vehicles, targeting at least 230 charging points at multiple locations and leaving open the possibility of extending the concession for an additional ten years. By contrast, the German waterways administration’s current notice is centred on operational needs of its own fleet, more akin to the internal networks being planned for Česká televize’s headquarters in Prague or the eight 50 kW chargers being procured by Teplárny Brno for deployment in Brno, both flagged in October 2025 and August 2025 respectively.
This distinction between internal fleet infrastructure and public networks is shaping how contracts are structured. Internal networks tend to combine planning, construction and maintenance around specific operational sites, while public concessions emphasise user services, payment systems and long-term commercial models. The waterways project sits firmly in the former camp, but at a scale – 345 properties – that is closer to regional public networks than to a single campus upgrade.
As a prior information notice, the waterways administration’s announcement signals intent and forthcoming procurement rather than final contract terms. Key details – from technical standards and charging capacities to the precise division of lots between planning and operation – are still to be set out in full tender documents.
For infrastructure planners, engineering consultancies, charging equipment manufacturers and operators, the programme offers a substantial opportunity in a segment that has, until now, seen fewer large, centrally coordinated tenders: specialist federal fleets with many dispersed sites. Combined with the run of 2025 notices from bus operators, municipalities, regions and public institutions across Europe, it underlines that public-sector demand for charging infrastructure is broadening beyond early pilots into more systematic, fleet-wide electrification.
The next stages will show how far the contracting authority seeks standardisation across its sites, how responsibilities are allocated between planning and operational partners, and whether lessons from bus depots, government campuses and regional concessions are carried into the waterways context. Those answers will determine not only who bids, but how this large internal network is built and run over the coming years.
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