EU charging plan welcomed, with reservation on size

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association and Eurelectric welcome the focus on infrastructure for electrically-chargeable vehicles in the coronavirus recovery plan announced by the European Commission but warned that still more charge points would be needed.

The associations support the goal of funding 1 million public charging points referred to in the plan but they note that this objective was already part of the European Green Deal, and that it falls well below what will be required in reality.

This directive, which was adopted in 2014, is not in line with the technical development of electric vehicles or charging technologies, and has also been suffering from poor implementation by member states.

ACEA and Eurelectric are therefore calling on the Commission to accelerate its plans for the AFID review as part of the recovery plan for Europe. This revised directive should introduce a much more ambitious approach for rolling out charging points and hydrogen refuelling stations across the entire European Union.

Infrastructure deployment (particularly across the TEN-T core and comprehensive networks and in urban areas) should be in line with the benchmarks for zero- and low-emission vehicles set by the EU for 2025 and 2030, and should consider the power classes of charging points and the charging capacities of vehicles.

Trucks and buses, for instance, have different needs to cars when it comes to infrastructure, due to their higher power and energy demand, as well as specific space, parking for overnight charging and access requirements.