EU electric vehicles charging infrastructure at risk of being two-tier system

LONDON (ICIS)–The EU’s electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure runs the risk of becoming a two-tier system, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) on Tuesday.

Of all EU charging stations, 70% are concentrated in the Netherlands (66,665), France (45,751) and Germany (44,538), which account for just 23% of the union’s total surface area.

Source: ACEA

This leaves the remaining 70% of the 27-country bloc to be covered by the remaining 30% of the infrastructure.

In contrast, Romania – around six times the size of the Netherlands – has 493 charging points, equating to 0.2% of the EU total.

The disparity is emerging between rich EU member states in western Europe and countries with a lower GDP in eastern, central and southern Europe.

This is causing countries with a larger land mass but lower GDP such as Poland and Spain lagging – they which account for 0.8% and 3.3% of the charging points respectively.

Already there is a gap between the third-ranking Germany and Italy in fourth place. There is a significant margin between the two, with infrastructure share falling from 19.9% to 5.8%.

ACEA is calling for binding targets for EV charging points and hydrogen stations for fuel cell cars for each member state ahead of the publication by the European Commission – the EU’s executive body – of the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Directive.

“Anyone who wants to buy an electric or fuel cell car depends on having reliable charging or refuelling infrastructure – whether that is at home, at work and on the road,” said ACEA director general, Eric-Mark Huitema.

“The time has come for governments across Europe to pick up speed in the race to greener mobility.”

Around 6m publicly available charging points would be needed to drive carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions down by 50% in 2030, according to data from the EU Commission.

As less than 225,000 charging points are available today, this means the rollout would need to be done at a 27-fold increase in less than a decade.