HANOVER (dpa-AFX) - Lower Saxony's Minister President Stephan Weil does not expect electric cars to overload the power grids. "E-cars will not cause the grids to collapse, and the electric turnaround in mobility will not fail due to a lack of power supply," the SPD politician, who has also been a member of Volkswagen 's supervisory board for almost ten years, told "Der Spiegel" magazine. So far, he said, there are not too many e-cars, but too few. "It is good to point out problems early on, but there is no reason for scaremongering," Weil said.

The head of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, had told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in January: "If very many new heat pumps and charging stations continue to be installed, then overload problems and local power outages in the distribution network are to be feared if we don't act." According to the report, temporary rationing of electricity will therefore be possible from 2024. However, Müller rejected a "complete rationing." According to the report, all affected households would be able to charge enough electricity for three hours to drive their e-car 50 kilometers./cwe/DP/stw