As part of an ecological transition approach, the European Commission is preparing to ban the production of thermal vehicles in 2035. Except that the adoption of electric cars is not going as planned and the European automobile manufacturers (ACEA) are warning about the lack of charging stations as reported Point.
Too few charging stations in Europe
This report explains that the pace of deployment of new charging stations is insufficient. Worse still: since 2017, this pace has been too slow to occur in parallel with the increase in sales of electric cars. The CO2 reduction targets for 2030 will be difficult to achieve according to ACEA.
ACEA members say “concerned” by this discrepancy as explained by Sigrid de Vries, general director of this group. The gap could further widen over the years beyond the predictions of the European Commission. There is also a disagreement between the two parties since the ACEA estimates, based on data from Strategy& and Fraunhofer ISI, that 65 million terminals will be needed in 2030. For Brussels, it is 30 million.
Why such a gap? The European Commission counts battery-powered electric cars while the ACEA takes into account electric vans which also use charging stations. As for average consumption, Brussels is based on 14.8 kWh/100 km while European manufacturers are counting on 20 kWh/100 km.
8x more installs to achieve goals
In 2023, less than 3,000 terminals will be installed every week on European territory, or 150,000 over the year for a total of more than 630,000. In 2030, according to Brussels, 3.5 million will be needed installations, or nearly 8,000 per week on average, every year. Triple the current rate.
ACEA sees the bigger picture, unsurprisingly, by estimating that 8.8 million charging stations will be needed by 2030. Which is equivalent to more than 22,000 installations on average per week, each year, or around 8 times more than the current rate.
If ACEA believes that more charging stations are needed, it is to decarbonize road transport and support the European market in the face of strong Chinese competition. In China, electric models are experiencing real popularity, as evidenced by the success of the Xiaomi SU7 sedan.
Sigrid de Vries specifies that “Investment in public charging infrastructure must be urgently scaled up if we are to close the infrastructure gap and meet climate targets”.