Saturday at noon: the busiest hour at Germany's public chargers
When are EV chargers in Germany at their busiest? On Saturday at noon. At that hour 38% of charge points are occupied. The quietest hour falls on the same day: at 3 a.m. on Saturday it is 9%.
I wanted to know when you are most likely to find a free charge point. So I took every site and worked out what share of its charge points was occupied in each hour of the week. Occupied means a car is charging or the charge point is blocked. The data comes from the public live feeds over the past four weeks.
Numbers as a table
| Weekday | Hour (local) | occupied (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | 0 | 12.4 |
| Mon | 1 | 11.7 |
| Mon | 2 | 11.2 |
| Mon | 3 | 11.4 |
| Mon | 4 | 13.3 |
| Mon | 5 | 19.0 |
| Mon | 6 | 25.7 |
| Mon | 7 | 29.3 |
| Mon | 8 | 33.8 |
| Mon | 9 | 33.4 |
| Mon | 10 | 33.7 |
| Mon | 11 | 33.9 |
| Mon | 12 | 34.0 |
| Mon | 13 | 30.5 |
| Mon | 14 | 27.9 |
| Mon | 15 | 27.0 |
| Mon | 16 | 26.8 |
| Mon | 17 | 27.0 |
| Mon | 18 | 25.3 |
| Mon | 19 | 22.9 |
| Mon | 20 | 20.1 |
| Mon | 21 | 17.5 |
| Mon | 22 | 15.7 |
| Mon | 23 | 15.4 |
| Tue | 0 | 14.0 |
| Tue | 1 | 12.5 |
| Tue | 2 | 11.2 |
| Tue | 3 | 11.6 |
| Tue | 4 | 13.9 |
| Tue | 5 | 16.4 |
| Tue | 6 | 20.1 |
| Tue | 7 | 23.5 |
| Tue | 8 | 28.5 |
| Tue | 9 | 30.3 |
| Tue | 10 | 30.5 |
| Tue | 11 | 31.0 |
| Tue | 12 | 31.7 |
| Tue | 13 | 28.8 |
| Tue | 14 | 26.9 |
| Tue | 15 | 25.9 |
| Tue | 16 | 26.3 |
| Tue | 17 | 26.8 |
| Tue | 18 | 25.5 |
| Tue | 19 | 23.5 |
| Tue | 20 | 20.2 |
| Tue | 21 | 18.3 |
| Tue | 22 | 16.1 |
| Tue | 23 | 15.0 |
| Wed | 0 | 13.4 |
| Wed | 1 | 11.8 |
| Wed | 2 | 9.7 |
| Wed | 3 | 9.3 |
| Wed | 4 | 11.3 |
| Wed | 5 | 15.9 |
| Wed | 6 | 22.5 |
| Wed | 7 | 26.7 |
| Wed | 8 | 30.2 |
| Wed | 9 | 30.9 |
| Wed | 10 | 31.4 |
| Wed | 11 | 32.3 |
| Wed | 12 | 33.2 |
| Wed | 13 | 30.4 |
| Wed | 14 | 28.3 |
| Wed | 15 | 27.2 |
| Wed | 16 | 27.3 |
| Wed | 17 | 27.5 |
| Wed | 18 | 26.3 |
| Wed | 19 | 25.0 |
| Wed | 20 | 22.2 |
| Wed | 21 | 18.9 |
| Wed | 22 | 16.9 |
| Wed | 23 | 15.9 |
| Thu | 0 | 13.8 |
| Thu | 1 | 12.9 |
| Thu | 2 | 10.9 |
| Thu | 3 | 9.9 |
| Thu | 4 | 12.0 |
| Thu | 5 | 17.3 |
| Thu | 6 | 23.2 |
| Thu | 7 | 28.4 |
| Thu | 8 | 32.4 |
| Thu | 9 | 32.9 |
| Thu | 10 | 32.6 |
| Thu | 11 | 32.8 |
| Thu | 12 | 34.0 |
| Thu | 13 | 31.4 |
| Thu | 14 | 28.4 |
| Thu | 15 | 28.0 |
| Thu | 16 | 28.7 |
| Thu | 17 | 28.8 |
| Thu | 18 | 27.2 |
| Thu | 19 | 25.6 |
| Thu | 20 | 22.4 |
| Thu | 21 | 19.2 |
| Thu | 22 | 16.5 |
| Thu | 23 | 14.2 |
| Fri | 0 | 13.2 |
| Fri | 1 | 13.1 |
| Fri | 2 | 11.3 |
| Fri | 3 | 10.8 |
| Fri | 4 | 12.2 |
| Fri | 5 | 17.9 |
| Fri | 6 | 23.0 |
| Fri | 7 | 28.2 |
| Fri | 8 | 33.2 |
| Fri | 9 | 33.9 |
| Fri | 10 | 34.6 |
| Fri | 11 | 35.5 |
| Fri | 12 | 36.0 |
| Fri | 13 | 34.0 |
| Fri | 14 | 31.3 |
| Fri | 15 | 30.5 |
| Fri | 16 | 30.7 |
| Fri | 17 | 30.2 |
| Fri | 18 | 28.3 |
| Fri | 19 | 26.1 |
| Fri | 20 | 23.0 |
| Fri | 21 | 19.9 |
| Fri | 22 | 17.5 |
| Fri | 23 | 16.1 |
| Sat | 0 | 14.6 |
| Sat | 1 | 12.5 |
| Sat | 2 | 9.5 |
| Sat | 3 | 9.1 |
| Sat | 4 | 10.7 |
| Sat | 5 | 13.8 |
| Sat | 6 | 18.6 |
| Sat | 7 | 25.8 |
| Sat | 8 | 29.2 |
| Sat | 9 | 31.3 |
| Sat | 10 | 34.6 |
| Sat | 11 | 37.3 |
| Sat | 12 | 38.4 |
| Sat | 13 | 37.7 |
| Sat | 14 | 34.9 |
| Sat | 15 | 32.9 |
| Sat | 16 | 31.2 |
| Sat | 17 | 28.8 |
| Sat | 18 | 26.1 |
| Sat | 19 | 22.9 |
| Sat | 20 | 19.8 |
| Sat | 21 | 17.9 |
| Sat | 22 | 15.6 |
| Sat | 23 | 13.9 |
| Sun | 0 | 12.6 |
| Sun | 1 | 11.4 |
| Sun | 2 | 10.6 |
| Sun | 3 | 10.2 |
| Sun | 4 | 11.1 |
| Sun | 5 | 12.9 |
| Sun | 6 | 16.0 |
| Sun | 7 | 21.6 |
| Sun | 8 | 26.5 |
| Sun | 9 | 29.3 |
| Sun | 10 | 32.9 |
| Sun | 11 | 35.8 |
| Sun | 12 | 36.9 |
| Sun | 13 | 36.8 |
| Sun | 14 | 34.8 |
| Sun | 15 | 33.1 |
| Sun | 16 | 32.3 |
| Sun | 17 | 31.3 |
| Sun | 18 | 28.9 |
| Sun | 19 | 25.1 |
| Sun | 20 | 21.8 |
| Sun | 21 | 18.0 |
| Sun | 22 | 14.5 |
| Sun | 23 | 12.9 |
Embed
Chart under CC BY 4.0, free to use with attribution.
<a href="https://ladepark.app/en/blog/when-ev-chargers-are-busy"><img src="https://ladepark.app/blog/assets/occ-01-week-heatmap.en.light.svg" alt="Heatmap of German charge point occupancy by weekday and hour; busiest Saturday at noon, quietest Saturday at 3 a.m." width="800"></a><br>Chart: Ladepark (https://ladepark.app/en/blog/when-ev-chargers-are-busy), CC BY 4.0. Data: DEU curve pack (28-day profiles, local time); DEU search pack (evse_count); MobiData BW OCPDB (DL-DE-BY-2.0), Hamburg UDP (DL-DE-BY-2.0), Mobilithek (CC0)On weekdays, two kinds of charging show up. At sites with only AC (alternating current) chargers, 25% of charge points are already occupied at 3 a.m. Fast chargers of 150 kW and more are almost empty at that hour. They are busiest around noon.
Numbers as a table
| Hour (local) | AC sites occupied (%) | DC 150 kW+ occupied (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 29.3 | 5.8 |
| 1 | 28.2 | 4.4 |
| 2 | 25.4 | 4.1 |
| 3 | 25.1 | 4.1 |
| 4 | 27.5 | 6.0 |
| 5 | 32.9 | 11.0 |
| 6 | 36.6 | 18.0 |
| 7 | 38.6 | 22.8 |
| 8 | 44.6 | 26.1 |
| 9 | 49.6 | 25.1 |
| 10 | 50.1 | 25.5 |
| 11 | 48.5 | 27.2 |
| 12 | 44.9 | 29.7 |
| 13 | 40.1 | 28.2 |
| 14 | 35.3 | 26.5 |
| 15 | 32.0 | 26.4 |
| 16 | 30.2 | 27.3 |
| 17 | 29.5 | 27.7 |
| 18 | 30.3 | 25.6 |
| 19 | 33.7 | 21.3 |
| 20 | 34.6 | 16.3 |
| 21 | 33.0 | 12.7 |
| 22 | 30.9 | 10.4 |
| 23 | 29.8 | 8.6 |
Embed
Chart under CC BY 4.0, free to use with attribution.
<a href="https://ladepark.app/en/blog/when-ev-chargers-are-busy"><img src="https://ladepark.app/blog/assets/occ-02-ac-vs-dc-day.en.light.svg" alt="Two lines over a weekday: AC sites are a quarter occupied at night, fast chargers hardly; fast chargers peak around noon" width="800"></a><br>Chart: Ladepark (https://ladepark.app/en/blog/when-ev-chargers-are-busy), CC BY 4.0. Data: DEU curve pack; DEU search pack (evse_count, dc_evse_count, max_power_w); MobiData BW OCPDB (DL-DE-BY-2.0), Hamburg UDP (DL-DE-BY-2.0), Mobilithek (CC0)Sunday was the biggest surprise. At fast chargers the Sunday peak, at 38%, is higher than the peak of an average weekday. Norway and Sweden show the same pattern.
Numbers as a table
| Country | Hour (local) | Mon to Fri occupied (%) | Sunday occupied (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 0 | 5.8 | 7.7 |
| Germany | 1 | 4.4 | 5.9 |
| Germany | 2 | 4.1 | 4.7 |
| Germany | 3 | 4.1 | 3.9 |
| Germany | 4 | 6.0 | 4.3 |
| Germany | 5 | 11.0 | 5.9 |
| Germany | 6 | 18.0 | 9.6 |
| Germany | 7 | 22.8 | 18.0 |
| Germany | 8 | 26.1 | 23.7 |
| Germany | 9 | 25.1 | 26.3 |
| Germany | 10 | 25.5 | 30.5 |
| Germany | 11 | 27.2 | 35.2 |
| Germany | 12 | 29.7 | 37.7 |
| Germany | 13 | 28.2 | 37.7 |
| Germany | 14 | 26.5 | 35.8 |
| Germany | 15 | 26.4 | 33.9 |
| Germany | 16 | 27.3 | 32.6 |
| Germany | 17 | 27.7 | 30.9 |
| Germany | 18 | 25.6 | 27.9 |
| Germany | 19 | 21.3 | 22.4 |
| Germany | 20 | 16.3 | 18.3 |
| Germany | 21 | 12.7 | 13.2 |
| Germany | 22 | 10.4 | 8.2 |
| Germany | 23 | 8.6 | 6.3 |
| Norway | 0 | 5.2 | 8.1 |
| Norway | 1 | 4.1 | 6.7 |
| Norway | 2 | 3.9 | 5.7 |
| Norway | 3 | 3.8 | 6.1 |
| Norway | 4 | 5.4 | 8.0 |
| Norway | 5 | 11.7 | 8.2 |
| Norway | 6 | 22.6 | 8.5 |
| Norway | 7 | 25.4 | 11.4 |
| Norway | 8 | 27.7 | 18.2 |
| Norway | 9 | 28.3 | 23.9 |
| Norway | 10 | 27.0 | 27.9 |
| Norway | 11 | 29.0 | 31.7 |
| Norway | 12 | 28.5 | 34.7 |
| Norway | 13 | 27.8 | 34.3 |
| Norway | 14 | 27.2 | 34.2 |
| Norway | 15 | 27.5 | 32.6 |
| Norway | 16 | 27.0 | 30.2 |
| Norway | 17 | 25.1 | 27.6 |
| Norway | 18 | 22.2 | 25.1 |
| Norway | 19 | 19.5 | 21.5 |
| Norway | 20 | 16.7 | 18.1 |
| Norway | 21 | 13.4 | 14.0 |
| Norway | 22 | 9.8 | 9.6 |
| Norway | 23 | 7.5 | 6.8 |
| Sweden | 0 | 5.3 | 6.2 |
| Sweden | 1 | 5.7 | 5.6 |
| Sweden | 2 | 5.7 | 5.9 |
| Sweden | 3 | 5.1 | 5.9 |
| Sweden | 4 | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Sweden | 5 | 13.1 | 7.7 |
| Sweden | 6 | 21.4 | 9.6 |
| Sweden | 7 | 24.9 | 15.7 |
| Sweden | 8 | 26.7 | 21.8 |
| Sweden | 9 | 26.4 | 26.9 |
| Sweden | 10 | 27.2 | 32.5 |
| Sweden | 11 | 29.5 | 39.0 |
| Sweden | 12 | 31.0 | 40.6 |
| Sweden | 13 | 29.3 | 39.3 |
| Sweden | 14 | 27.7 | 36.9 |
| Sweden | 15 | 27.5 | 34.5 |
| Sweden | 16 | 25.9 | 31.7 |
| Sweden | 17 | 24.8 | 28.5 |
| Sweden | 18 | 21.4 | 24.3 |
| Sweden | 19 | 16.9 | 19.5 |
| Sweden | 20 | 13.5 | 15.1 |
| Sweden | 21 | 10.1 | 11.4 |
| Sweden | 22 | 8.1 | 7.7 |
| Sweden | 23 | 6.1 | 5.7 |
Embed
Chart under CC BY 4.0, free to use with attribution.
<a href="https://ladepark.app/en/blog/when-ev-chargers-are-busy"><img src="https://ladepark.app/blog/assets/occ-03-sunday-fast.en.light.svg" alt="Three panels for Germany, Norway and Sweden: at fast chargers the Sunday line runs above the weekday line around midday" width="800"></a><br>Chart: Ladepark (https://ladepark.app/en/blog/when-ev-chargers-are-busy), CC BY 4.0. Data: DEU, NOR, SWE curve packs; search packs (evse_count, dc_evse_count, max_power_w); MobiData BW OCPDB (DL-DE-BY-2.0), Hamburg UDP (DL-DE-BY-2.0), Mobilithek (CC0); NOBIL (CC BY 4.0)Finally, I looked at how often an entire site is full. It does not happen often. Even at the busiest weekday hour, 10 a.m., a German site with at least four charge points is full only 3.6% of the time. The Netherlands is different: there, sites are full as often at 1 a.m. as at noon.
Numbers as a table
| Country | Hour (local) | time full (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 0 | 1.3 |
| Germany | 1 | 1.34 |
| Germany | 2 | 1.37 |
| Germany | 3 | 1.46 |
| Germany | 4 | 1.27 |
| Germany | 5 | 1.05 |
| Germany | 6 | 0.8 |
| Germany | 7 | 0.96 |
| Germany | 8 | 2.1 |
| Germany | 9 | 3.23 |
| Germany | 10 | 3.6 |
| Germany | 11 | 3.59 |
| Germany | 12 | 3.25 |
| Germany | 13 | 2.75 |
| Germany | 14 | 2.34 |
| Germany | 15 | 2.17 |
| Germany | 16 | 2.21 |
| Germany | 17 | 2.3 |
| Germany | 18 | 2.34 |
| Germany | 19 | 2.27 |
| Germany | 20 | 1.85 |
| Germany | 21 | 1.43 |
| Germany | 22 | 1.31 |
| Germany | 23 | 1.26 |
| Netherlands | 0 | 8.75 |
| Netherlands | 1 | 8.8 |
| Netherlands | 2 | 8.53 |
| Netherlands | 3 | 7.92 |
| Netherlands | 4 | 6.87 |
| Netherlands | 5 | 4.92 |
| Netherlands | 6 | 2.22 |
| Netherlands | 7 | 1.72 |
| Netherlands | 8 | 3.15 |
| Netherlands | 9 | 6.27 |
| Netherlands | 10 | 7.64 |
| Netherlands | 11 | 8.45 |
| Netherlands | 12 | 8.8 |
| Netherlands | 13 | 7.85 |
| Netherlands | 14 | 6.7 |
| Netherlands | 15 | 5.25 |
| Netherlands | 16 | 4.11 |
| Netherlands | 17 | 3.3 |
| Netherlands | 18 | 3.77 |
| Netherlands | 19 | 4.91 |
| Netherlands | 20 | 5.46 |
| Netherlands | 21 | 5.86 |
| Netherlands | 22 | 6.39 |
| Netherlands | 23 | 7.45 |
| Norway | 0 | 2.21 |
| Norway | 1 | 2.31 |
| Norway | 2 | 2.32 |
| Norway | 3 | 2.12 |
| Norway | 4 | 1.89 |
| Norway | 5 | 1.5 |
| Norway | 6 | 0.92 |
| Norway | 7 | 0.56 |
| Norway | 8 | 0.72 |
| Norway | 9 | 1.18 |
| Norway | 10 | 1.29 |
| Norway | 11 | 1.33 |
| Norway | 12 | 1.26 |
| Norway | 13 | 1.1 |
| Norway | 14 | 0.86 |
| Norway | 15 | 0.73 |
| Norway | 16 | 0.74 |
| Norway | 17 | 0.88 |
| Norway | 18 | 1.0 |
| Norway | 19 | 1.16 |
| Norway | 20 | 1.49 |
| Norway | 21 | 1.68 |
| Norway | 22 | 1.81 |
| Norway | 23 | 1.96 |
| Sweden | 0 | 1.34 |
| Sweden | 1 | 1.38 |
| Sweden | 2 | 1.34 |
| Sweden | 3 | 1.19 |
| Sweden | 4 | 1.3 |
| Sweden | 5 | 0.89 |
| Sweden | 6 | 0.85 |
| Sweden | 7 | 0.85 |
| Sweden | 8 | 1.69 |
| Sweden | 9 | 2.33 |
| Sweden | 10 | 2.42 |
| Sweden | 11 | 2.27 |
| Sweden | 12 | 1.99 |
| Sweden | 13 | 1.86 |
| Sweden | 14 | 1.51 |
| Sweden | 15 | 1.06 |
| Sweden | 16 | 0.86 |
| Sweden | 17 | 0.92 |
| Sweden | 18 | 0.95 |
| Sweden | 19 | 0.94 |
| Sweden | 20 | 0.93 |
| Sweden | 21 | 0.99 |
| Sweden | 22 | 1.13 |
| Sweden | 23 | 1.28 |
Embed
Chart under CC BY 4.0, free to use with attribution.
<a href="https://ladepark.app/en/blog/when-ev-chargers-are-busy"><img src="https://ladepark.app/blog/assets/occ-08-full-sites-by-hour.en.light.svg" alt="Share of time sites with four or more charge points are full, by hour, for four countries; the Netherlands sit well above Germany" width="800"></a><br>Chart: Ladepark (https://ladepark.app/en/blog/when-ev-chargers-are-busy), CC BY 4.0. Data: ClickHouse queue_stats_daily (export 2026-11-07); search packs 2026-11-07 (country); MobiData BW OCPDB (DL-DE-BY-2.0), Hamburg UDP (DL-DE-BY-2.0), Mobilithek (CC0); NDW / DOT-NL (CC0); NOBIL (CC BY 4.0)What this means for drivers
Chargers are busiest around midday at the weekend and quietest at night and in the early morning. Even at the busiest hour, a German site with four or more charge points is rarely fully occupied. A site's own page shows how busy it is right now and how busy it usually is.
Method and data
Counted is the share of occupied charge points among all usable charge points of a site, weighted by the number of charge points, in local time.
Occupancy per site, weekday and hour comes from Ladepark's curve pack: status changes from the public live feeds, measured over the 28 days to 7 November 2026, in local time. Shown are only sites with a value in all 168 hours of the week (2,897 of 35,705), so that the same sites stand behind every cell. This favours sites that are used often. "Full" means at least 90% of the usable charge points occupied, with at least four charge points. That number comes from the weekdays of the three weeks from 19 October to 6 November 2026.
Sources: MobiData BW, OCPDB (DL-DE-BY-2.0) with register data of the Bundesnetzagentur (CC BY 4.0), Urban Data Platform Hamburg (DL-DE-BY-2.0), Mobilithek (CC0), NOBIL (CC BY 4.0), NDW / DOT-NL (CC0).
Ladepark shows on a map how many charge points are free right now, and when a site is usually free. The iPhone app is free in public testing: get it on TestFlight.