Seed & Greet, Hilden, Germany
2024 Entry profile – ‘Best EV Hub in the World’ – Highway
Company overview
Seed & Greet is a subsidiary of Bäcker Schüren, an owner-managed organic bakery with a strong philosophy of sustainability, including healthy and organic food, local sourcing and a low emission energy concept. Roland Schüren has been running the family business since 1998 as the fourth generation of the bakery, which was founded in 1905. The “Seed & Greet” site in Hilden is the first and – until now – only one that we run.
The first PV-supported charging station at the bakery’s headquarters is the forerunner of today’s charging park at the Hilden junction. Three private investors built what is now the busiest charging park in the EU. Tesla, Fastned and Nio are leaseholders, while the charging park operates its own AC charging stations.
At the Hilden motorway junction, emission-free driving meets fresh, organic food.
Charging. For charging cars, lorries or caravans, customers will find Tesla Superchargers next to Fastned’s charging stations. The charging park’s own charging stations and a battery swapping station from Nio complete the range. A total of 107 charging stations with different charging capacities are available. The electricity comes from our own PV system and from the grid. A storage system supports the necessary load balancing and cost-optimised electricity purchasing.
Catering. The Seed & Greet bistro café offers guests fresh baked goods from the Schüren organic bakery, as well as pizzas, bowls and snacks that are freshly prepared on site for customers. In summer, tables and benches invite customers to picnic outdoors. The bees buzzing around – our own – produce delicious S&G honey. In the beds around the car park, guests can pick their own fresh strawberries or pick apples from the tree – “mouth robbery is allowed!”.
Our EV journey
Our EV journey is an e-mobility enthusiastic baker, an unanswered letter from Elon and a property for sale.
Roland is an enthusiastic e-mobilist and a pioneer in this field – a baker by trade. Between 2011 and 2018 he had already converted nearly his entire delivery fleet of 12 vehicles to electric. As there were no suitable vehicles on the market at the time, he quickly founded a self-help group and designed the “Bakery Vehicle One” himself.
The BV1 is still in use in the bakery today and, to this day, unique in the market for light commercial vehicles. He also created the necessary charging infrastructure himself: for years, the charging park at his bakery was the largest public e-charging park in Germany and a meeting point for the e-mobility scene.
The current charging park at the Hilden motorway junction was created as a successor when a suitable plot of land in the industrial estate went up for sale. A letter to Elon Musk asking whether he would like to build a Tesla Supercharger at the site unfortunately went unanswered. Roland therefore took action himself and founded the “Ladepark Kreuz Hilden” (Charging park Hilden junction) together with two other private investors.
They built what is now the busiest charging park in the EU.
Tesla and Fastned are leaseholders, while the charging park also operates its own charging stations. There is also a Nio battery exchange station at the site. All types and powers of electric vehicles can be charged at the location.
To complete the offer, a relevant food and beverage proposition was a must. This is how the Seed & Greet bistro café was born and early e-mobilists still meet there regularly to this day.
Site overview
EV-only at a main motorway intersection and offering local, organic food
The site is located in Hilden at the intersection of two major motorways and in the centre of one of the most densely populated regions in Germany – two excellent reasons for choosing this location.
On an area of 12,000 square metres, e-mobilists will find a world just for themselves: E-charging stations for all types of e-vehicles: cars, lorries, caravans, … For EVs-only. No refuelling!
Covered loading bays protect against rain and sun. For a coffee break or more, the Seed & Greet bistro next to the charging points offers a selection of fresh snacks, organic baked goods and drinks. All the baked goods come from the Schüren organic bakery only four kilometres away. To enjoy their local organic food, guests can either take a seat inside, on the terrace or on the lawn in a deck chair, and enjoy a view of the pond.
WiFi is, of course, free of charge. The site also offers air, water and vacuum cleaners, alongside free restrooms, for customers to use while recharging their cars.
EV charging information
A site only for EV charging!
A total of 107 EV charging places are available in Hilden, from the latest Supercharger to the Tesla Roadster HP-Charger
Technical details:
- Total DC charging places: 62 (40 Tesla, 22 Fastned)
- Tesla: 32x 250 kW (V3), 8x 150 kW (V2, to be replaced this year to V4)
- Fastned; 12x 300 kW, 10x 400 kW
- Total AC charging places: 45, all operated by Seed & Greet
- 12x 22 kW, Type 2
- 28x 7 kW, Type 2
- 4x 3,7 kW, normal plug
- 1x 21 kW, Tesla Roadster
- NIO Battery swapping station
- All the energy produced by the 435 kWp PV on site goes to powering the cars and is assisted by 2 MWh battery storage
- There are four truck and trailer charging spaces, with room for large vehicles without uncoupling
Payment and loyalty
Payment is easy, digital or by card. It differs slightly depending on the provider.
With Tesla, payment is made automatically, via app or roaming partners such as DKV. In 2024, the new V4 Superchargers will be added and, with them, payment by credit card.
With Fastned, payment is made via app, roaming partners or credit card.
Seed & Greet AC payments can be made by German girocard or credit card. Cash payment is accepted in the Seed & Greet bistro.
Pricing is displayed:
- Tesla: in the car displays, in the app
- Fastned: in the app, on the charger screen
- Seed & Greet: on the charger unit and on the charger screen
The Seed & Greet loyalty program is called “Erntekarte” (“harvest card”). Clients collect points from food purchases and use them later for charging or other benefits from the store’s retail products.
Utilisation rates, maintenance and uptime
The Seed & Greet at Hilden is the most frequented fast-charging park in the EU. The consumption per day is up to 36 MWh. However, it is expected this figure will increase when the holiday season begins and boosts motorway traffic. But we are well prepared and happy to serve all EV clients.
Charging customers have round-the-clock access to the site, the charging stations and the toilets.
Uptime is 99.9% – a service that we take for granted and are happy to ensure that this is the case.
The maintenance of the charging park’s infrastructure is assured by the operator and technical service subcontractors.
In case of technical faults concerning charging, the Seed & Greet on-site team reports directly to Tesla and Fastned. Since the charging park was commissioned in 2020, there has only been two outages for less than 1.5 hours.
Human health
- No emission on site, except bakery or café customers coming by ICE cars (to be honest, by bike is more often).
- E-cars only, no fuel for ICE cars offered
- Fresh food, organic bread, local suppliers from the region
- Mixed plantings with native crops
- Hand picking for fruit and vegetables
- Growing own lettuce in vertical farming
- Expansion and increase in quantity planned
Sustainability
Sustainability is not a program, but a conviction. At the Seed & Greet site, it runs through all areas of the business.
We are combining the three sectors most relevant to climate protection – mobility, energy generation and food production – on one site. The PV system does not supply the public grid, but produces for all consumers on the site: Tesla, Fastned, Nio and for the Seed & Greet bistro.
And we want more of it: in a third construction phase, there will be a new larger building that integrates the bistro with a bakery, offices and vertical farming. Meanwhile, the heating at the site is supplied by the waste heat from the bakery and the refrigeration machines. Customers react favourably to the availability of renewable energy. At peak load, for example, the lighting in the vertical farm is switched off.
Energy concept
- 100% renewable energy. Own PV plant of 435 kWp on site directly feeds the EVs. Additional green electricity is purchased from the public grid.
- Battery storage with 2 MWh for peek shaving and purchase optimisation of green power. In 2023, consumption increased so much that we no longer needed to store the PV energy because it was used entirely for charging the cars.
The result of this concept: instead of 8 MW connected load, the entire property only requires 5 MW.
Bistro building
- Timber construction: the Gastro pavilion and canopies are made of wood
- Thermal insulation for winter without heating down to -16 degrees C
- Heat recovery from the baking oven for hot water
Sustainability is not a program, but a conviction. At Seed & Greet, it runs through all areas of the business
Award-winning bakery
Local food, organic bread. Handcrafted and low carbon production from Roland‘s organic bakery next door. Bäckerei Schüren has received several awards for its concept of resource-saving and energy-friendly production, including the German Sustainability Award 2013 and the German Solar Award 2015.
Snacks on demand and with fresh ingredients
Salad leaves partly from our own production (to be scaled up in the next step and by vertical farming)
Resource management & other benefits for team, nature and sports
- Returns from the sale of baked goods go to a social organisation that distributes food to people in need (so-called “Tafel”), into the bakery‘s own bread creation that contains a proportion of stale bread (Crouton-Krume) and even into beer production (Strandhase) and soap (Lush)
- EVs for employees; employees can charge company and private e-cars free of charge
- We love nature! Natural planting with native varieties. In winter there is enough left for the birds. We have our own bees on site too.
- Sports promotion: we sponsor the road bike cycling team from the Mettmann club “TEAM ME”