BRUSSELS, January 8 (WNM/T&E) - To keep up with the upcoming electric surge - estimated to be between 33 million electric cars in the current policy scenario and 44 million in the climate neutral one in 2030 - EU's infrastructure framework needs to prioritise electric charging and be in line with the increasing demand for public and private charge points, according to T&E research published today (https://www.transportenvironment.org/publications/recharge-eu-how-many-charge-points-will-eu-countries-need-2030).

As of the end of 2019, there are around 185,000 public charge points in the EU, or seven cars for each point, which is enough for the current market. But beyond 2020 much more charging infrastructure will be needed to keep pace with the growing e-mobility market. More effort is also needed to ensure seamless and reliable charging within and across countries for drivers.

T&E’s Supply Metric proposes to weigh charge points based on how much energy they can provide to the electric vehicle fleet and how available they are to the public. This metric should be used to set the EU public charging infrastructure deployment targets for each country for 2025 and 2030, corresponding to 1.3 million public charge points EU-wide in 2025 and close to 3 million in 2030, according to the study. In total this would require investment of €1.8 billion in the year 2025, or 3% of the EU’s annual investment in road transport infrastructure.

“The European Commission talks about 1 million public chargers for 2025 while we calculate 3 million in 2030 and 1.2-1.3 million in 2025 depending on the scenario,” said Lucien Mathieu, main author of the report, to EURACTIV.