Europe’s EV charging infrastructure is very uneven
The EU has more than 330,000 publicly accessible charging points, and that number is growing, but their uneven deployment means “travel across the EU in electric vehicles is not easy,” the European Court of Auditors warned in a report last year.
Just three countries – Germany, France and the Netherlands – account for 69 per cent of all charging points across the EU, while 10 European countries do not have a single charger per 100 km of road.
The European Commission has a target of hitting 1 million charging points by 2025, but the ECA’s report warned that the target risked being missed “if deployment continues to follow current trends”.
It estimated that roughly 150,000 new points would be needed each year – almost 3,000 a week – to close the gap.
There are apps and maps to navigate the jungle of charging stations
Fortunately, there are dedicated apps that help drivers navigate this jungle and map their journey, such as PlugShare and Chargemap.
With a card costing just under €20 a month, Chargemap users can access more than 600 operators (including Ionity, Fastned, EVBox Allego and New Motion) and some 230,000 charging points across Europe.
These charging operators all have different rates, but the single badge makes it easier to track the invoices incurred by each top-up, and you don’t need to juggle between subscriptions.
Europe’s charging station landscape is changing quickly
There’s reason to be optimistic, though. The market is starting to consolidate, and as more EVs hit the roads, more charging stations are popping up, and investment in infrastructure is recouped more quickly. One in 11 new cars sold in the EU in 2021 was fully electric, a jump of 63 per cent compared to 2020, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). Meanwhile, according to ChargeUp Europe, the number of publicly accessible charging points alone has risen sixfold since 2015. Those are the chargers found on motorways, car parks or at supermarkets and shopping centres.Those public stations actually only account for about 15 per cent of the overall number of charging points in the EU.