THE EV CHARGING MARKET IN THE EU

They were over 190,000 charging points in the EU in 2019.

Number of Electric Cars charging points per country

1. Netherlands: 38,479
2. France: 24,963 charging points distributed amongst 10,500 stations(Public authorities have set ambitious targets for the deployment of a charging network with 50,000 charging points available to the public in 2020 and 100,000 in 2023.) 
3. United Kingdom: 31,680  (As of May 2020, there were 31,680 charging connectors in the United Kingdom)
4. Germany: 18,385  ( According to the German government’s “Master Plan for Charging Infrastructure”, an additional 50,000 public charging points are to be built over the next two years, with the long-term goal of a total of 1m by 2030).
5. Spain: 15,060 (5,000 of which are public at 5,671 locations across Spain).
6. Norway: 12,447
7. Italy: 8,200 (public and private (publicly accessible) charging points in Italy, the regional distribution of which is rather uneven. Lombardy is the only region with over 1,000 charging points, followed by Lazio, Piedmont, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany and Sicily with over 500 each. Northern Italy has the highest number of charging points, both in total terms (51%) and for “fast charge” charging points specifically (53%).
8. Sweden: 6,918
9. Belgium: 6,400
10. Switzerland: 5,404
11. Austria: 4,079
12. Greece: 115 (only ten have fast chargers, while it is currently estimated that at least 3000 charging points will be required).
13. Bulgaria: 108
14. Malta: 100
15. Romania: 100
16. Slovakia: 35
17. Cyprus: 36

Some 3 million public changing points will have to be available by 2030 to sustain the rise of electric vehicles needed for Europe's long-term climate objectives. Assuming 44 million electric vehicles are on European roads by 2030 that means a fifteen-fold increase on the 190,000 public changers currently available.

Public charging infrastructure

Substantial investment will be needed in public charging infrastructure to serve the growing EV market. One-off investments in the deployment of public charge points (includes equipment, installation, and grid upgrades) would increase from about € 600 million euros in 2020 to € 1.8 billion in 2025 and € 2.9 billion in 2030. Cumulatively this would amount to a total of € 20 billion.

Private charging infrastructure

For private charging infrastructure, the total investment would be triple that.

Combined, about € 80 billion will need to be invested up to 2030 for the roll out of public and private charging infrastructure, a small fraction of the € 100 billion invested by the EU every year in road transport infrastructure.

Compared to the current rate of investment in road infrastructure (about € 53 billion a year) investment in public charging infrastructure would represent a mere 1% of the total in 2020, increasing to 3% of the total in 2025 and 5% in 2030. On the other hand it would represent in 2025 only 3% of the annual EU spending in fossil fuels subsidies estimated by the European Commission in 2019 to be € 55 billion.

Nordic countries have been the front runners of EV charging infrastructure race much before it was fashionable in other countries, Norway and Sweden are leading, with Denmark and Finland following closely. However, an interesting trend surfaces from mature markets such as Norway, there is high penetration of home chargers in Norway, 9 out of 10 EV owners have the option to charge their vehicle at home, with the total number of private wall box EVSE charging stations reaching 90,000 at the end of 2018.

While there has been considerable focus on and investment in public recharging infrastructure evidence from studies shows that it is a very minor part of the way electric cars are charged and just 5% of vehicle charging happens at public charging locations including on-street city charging, car parks and fast charging along road corridors, 95% of EV charging happens home and at work. Evidence from Norway, the most developed EV market in Europe, shows that as the EV market matures, public urban charging is used less rather than more. This is a clear indication while lack of public charging infrastructure was a deterrent for customers in purchasing electric vehicles, as the market matures, there would be more interest in charging solutions at home and at work where electric vehicles spend most of their time, parked. 

Considering that 75% of new bus registrations come from pubic bodies, public transportation and other fleet operators also play a significant role in the future of electrification of transportation. Currently, fully electric buses account for only 9% of urban bus sales in Europe. While there are instances of nations and cities stepping up, a more directed policy at the European level is much needed for the electrification of public fleets. France and Poland have put in place decarbonization targets for their public fleets. Several capital cities such as Madrid, London, and Brussels have put in place low-emission zones, and Copenhagen has decided to produce only electric buses going forward. Deutsche Post DHL Group has deployed the largest fleet of electric vehicles in Germany, this includes electric trucks, and over 12,000 street scooters, e-bikes and e-trikes. UK’s major energy suppliers Centrica and SSE have committed to switching their vehicle fleets to fully electric by 2030.