When you become a parent, how you view your surroundings changes. Your mental map of kid playgrounds near you is suddenly sharp and accurate: you know which one has a swing and which one has a slide, which one is shady, and which one gets too busy.
The same will happen if you buy an Electric Vehicle (EV): you will soon find the EV chargers that you will need and integrate into your life, whether at the restaurant, the supermarket, your gym club or, simply, in a nearby street.
With close to 400 electric car models already available in the EU, EVs are rapidly becoming mainstream. In Brussels alone, EVs are now reaching 60% of all new car registrations. Crucially, Europe has passed regulation (the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation – “AFIR”) to ensure that a dense network of public charging stations is rolled out, in lockstep with an increasing number of EVs on EU roads – 55 millions of them are expected by the end of the decade!
Just between June and October last year, 100,000 public charging points were deployed in the EU, but AFIR is designed to make the journey to electric mobility even smoother. It sets minimum targets for public charging infrastructure rollout, across our continent – think charging stations spread regularly along highways, for instance. This way, EV drivers can travel from Prague to Paris for their holiday without worrying about running out of power, while continuing to charge at the office or at home for their daily use.
That is good news for EV drivers. It is also good news for Europe’s economy and energy security. In the EV charging infrastructure industry alone, 15 000 new local jobs will be created each year by the end of the decade, a +270% job creation growth rate. This is a major opportunity, and there are many more coming from the electrification of road transport more broadly – they are part of our Union’s economic future and should be embraced. Meanwhile, as EV charging helps integrate renewable energy sources (such as electricity generated by rooftop solar panels) into the electricity grid and better manage energy systems, Europe can reduce fossil fuel imports – cutting CO2 emissions and geopolitical dependencies in one fell swoop.
It does not mean that everything is done and dusted for EV charging, however.
EV chargers could be rolled out much faster if it did not take two to three years for the companies that operate charging networks to assemble the necessary grid connection and permitting paperwork. Expanding and modernising the electricity grid across the EU is also an absolute necessity as Europe embarks on a journey towards the deep decarbonisation of its economy. The companies who build EV chargers certainly should not have to develop different versions of the same product for different national markets in the EU – that should be a no-brainer, after thirty years of single market.
As EV charging networks turn into just a regular part of our city and rural landscapes, it becomes as easy as charging a smartphone – mostly done in the background while at home, work, or engaging in other activities; but much more needs to be done to make the pillars of the “e-mobility” world work together: the vehicle, the charger, and the grid. Integrating them requires that they communicate with each other: this can only happen with a seamless data exchange along the value chain.
More grid, better market rules, unlocked data: the vision is clear, and if Europe can achieve that, charging an EV will become as easy as grabbing a coffee in Ixelles.
ChargeUp Europe is the voice of the EV charging industry, working towards the rapid deployment of charging infrastructure across Europe and a seamless charging experience for all EV drivers.
