23 June 2023
Public charging infrastructure is critical for the success of electric vehicle (EV) adoption. Major gaps in the availability of public charge points in EU countries may seriously slow the shift to sustainable mobility.
A new report from consulting firm EY-Parthenon has warned that Europe’s charging infrastructure must scale significantly to meet the quickly growing demand from EV drivers. Effective collaboration between investors, charge point operators, and car manufacturers to increase the charging options for EV drivers will be required for Europe to stay on track with ambitious targets for EV adoption.
The growth of the EV market has been exponential in the past several years, particularly in European countries like Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands. Around half of all vehicles on the road in Europe are expected to be electric-powered by 2035.
Though sales of EVs are surging in much of Europe, the infrastructure required for their continued adoption is lagging. Despite an agreement between European Union member states to dramatically increase the number of charging points across the union, the EY-Parthenon report found that charging infrastructure is forecast to fall behind EV production.
Finland, Cyprus, and Sweden are among the countries where the EV to public charge points ratio is high – meaning there are far more EVs on the road for each available charging point. There is significant variation in this ratio between countries: While Sweden has 13.6 EVs to each charging point, drivers in Italy and Malta will have no trouble finding a place to charge up with fewer than 4 EVs per public charge point.
Accessibility of charging is not just a question of how many stations exist, but also the quality of the stations. Different stations offer different charging speeds. While some offer high-speed charging, others charge slower. There is significant variation in charging speeds across Europe. For example, the Netherlands mostly has fast charging stations, France has an even split between fast and slow, and the UK has mostly slow charging stations. Ultra-fast stations are still rare in most of Europe.
“More effort is needed to ensure seamless and reliable charging within and across countries. The charging deployment should be fairly spread across Europe to ensure all Europeans get the same chance to shift to zero emission mobility,” according to a report from the European Federation for Transport and Environment.
With climate change quickly becoming a major issue on the agenda of EU nations, the transition to green mobility will be an essential part of European strategies to meet climate goals like the Paris Agreement. Among the EU targets for green mobility include the incredibly ambitious goal of completely ending the sale of CO2 emitting cars and vans by 2035.