Manufacturers denounce a two-speed Europe on the electric car: half of the charging stations in the EU are concentrated in just 2 countries: Holland (90.000 magazines) e Germany (60.000), which represent less than 10% of the entire surface of the EU. The other half of all charging points are spread across the remaining 25 countries, which cover 90% of the region's land area. In third position is the France with 37.128 stations followed by Sweden (25.197) Italy (23.543). This is the photograph of the current situation that emerges from aAcea analysis, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
Electric car charging stations: Cyprus at the bottom of the ranking
The gap between the top and bottom countries is huge. The Netherlands, the country with the most electric car charging stations, has nearly 1.600 times more infrastructure than the country with the least: Cyprus, with just 57 top-up points. Following Malta (98) Lithuania (207) Estonia (385) and Latvia (420). Indeed, the Netherlands alone has as many charging stations as 23 Member States combined.
As regards the distribution of charging stations for electric cars, there is a clear division between the countries of Central and Eastern Europe on one side and the countries of Western Europe on the other. For example, a country like the Romania – six times the size of the Netherlands – has just 0,4% of all EU charging points.
Despite the sharp increase in the number of charging points over the last five years (+180%), the total number (307.000) is far lower than needed. And in view of the ban on combustion cars from 2035, for a measure voted by the European Parliament, we need to speed up.
ALSO READ: 2022 year of the electric car, but Ford beats Tesla on the Stock Exchange
6,8 million recharge points are needed for the CO2 targets for 2030
To meet the CO2 targets, sales of electric vehicles will have to increase massively in all EU countries. A recent study shows that 2030 million public electric car charging points would be needed by 6,8 to achieve the proposed 55% CO2 reduction for cars, meaning growth will need to be more than 22-fold. less than 10 years.
The infrastructure regulation for i alternative fuels (AFIR), proposed by the European Commission last year, is intended to help resolve the situation. However, according to the Association, its level of ambition is completely insufficient.
"While some countries are making great strides in infrastructure development, most are lagging behind," said ACEA director general Eric-Mark Huitema. “The stark disparities demonstrate the need for strong and harmonized AFIR targets across all EU Member States.”
“We urge policymakers to strengthen AFIR so that it can achieve its goal of building a dense European network of charging stations, stretching from north to south and east to west.”
