ROME – Too many deficiencies in the European infrastructure network for charging electric vehicles. This is what emerges from the new analysis by the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers (Acea), which highlighted an insufficient number of electric charging points along the road networks in most EU countries, and like the vast majority of these they are not fast charging points. ACEA wants to bring this double problem to the attention of policy makers, capable of blocking the mass diffusion on the electric car market, just before the European Parliament votes on the regulation on alternative fuel infrastructures (Afir). The ACEA analysis found that six EU countries do not even have a single charging point for every 100 kilometers of road, 17 countries have fewer than five charging points per 100 km of road, and only five have more than 10 battery charger for every 100 km of roads. Furthermore, there is also a huge gap between the countries with the highest number of chargers per 100km of road and those with the least. Just to give an example, in the Netherlands there is one charger every 1.5 km of road, while Poland, which has a territorial extension eight times greater, has only one charger every 150 km. The ACEA alert also affects the charging speed which represents an important problem throughout the Old Continent, since fast chargers, with a capacity of over 22 kilowatts, make up a small part of the total, so much so that only one out of seven of all EU charging points offer fast charging.
According to the association, everything else (including many low-capacity common or garden power outlets) has a capacity of 22 kW or less and does not charge vehicles at an acceptable speed. In short, all this hinders the spread of electric vehicles and does not allow reaching the CO2 emissions targets, which can instead be achieved with a massive increase in sales of electric cars in all EU countries. “If we want to convince citizens across Europe to switch to electric mobility in the next decade, loading these cars should be as easy as refueling is today – said Sigrid de Vries, Acea’s general manager – People shouldn’t travel miles for find a charger, nor should they wait years to charge their vehicle ”. The European Association of Automobile Manufacturers therefore fully supports the report presented by the Afir rapporteur, Ismail Ertug. “We ask the deputies to vote for decisive action on infrastructures – added de Vries – by setting ambitious objectives, with clear application mechanisms, for each member state”. Finally, it should be noted that Italy, with an average of 9.2 recharging points per 100 kilometers of roads, ranks seventh in the specific ranking of European countries that sees the Netherlands in command with 64.3 points / 100. km.