"Filling Station of the Future"

ESSEN, Germany, June 10 Cooperation Between RWE and APCOA, Europe's Largest Car Park Operator

The RWE Group and APCOA Autoparking GmbH are entering into a partnership in the area of electric mobility. The two companies are launching a joint roll-out of charging points for electric cars in publicly accessible parking areas. This will make it possible for drivers to recharge their electric vehicles very conveniently, for example while they do the shopping.

Initially, RWE charging points will be set up at 20 APCOA parking facilities in central locations in Berlin, e.g. at Alexanderplatz or at the Brandenburg Gate.

The next step will then be to expand the RWE charging point infrastructure to car parks in other large cities such as Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich.

Thomas Veith, Managing Director of APCOA Autoparking GmbH said, "electric vehicles will play an important role in mobility in the future. APCOA is purposefully investing in the filling station of the future and is offering its customers pioneering services."

With this strategic partnership, RWE AG has taken one step further towards its objective of developing a full nationwide network of filling stations for electric vehicles. "We are delighted to have Europe's market leader in car park operations as a partner in setting up the necessary infrastructure for our charging points. Together, we want to demonstrate to consumers that it will soon be a very simple thing for the general public to recharge their vehicles," said Carolin Reichert, responsible for electric mobility at RWE.

The charging points are being set up in Berlin by RWE and Daimler's joint pilot project for e-mobility. RWE AG is installing 500 charging points and is using 100 electric Smart cars to test how the public charging infrastructure works, as well as examining the driving behaviour of the users. Until 2012, the largest such project in the world will be finding out how e-mobility can be brought onto the street.