Long way to go
The European Automobile Manufacturers Association, or ACEA, calculated how many EV charging points there are for every kilometer of road in the EU. The conclusion: far too little, although it differs greatly per country. The Netherlands is of course in the lead.
The ACEA did not calculate the number of chargers in absolute figures, but per kilometer of road. That’s interesting, because it says a lot about the accessibility of those chargers. However, it is important that this concerns all chargers. The regular charging station around the corner also counts, which means that not every charger is actually suitable for use during a long ride. On average, about 14 percent of all charging points is a fast charger, or one in seven chargers. These are units with a capacity of more than 22 kW, which is the limit for AC chargers.
Looking at all chargers, the Netherlands has an average of 64.3 EV charging points per 100 km away. One charger for every one and a half kilometers of road. This puts our country in the lead in the EU, which should come as no surprise after previous studies. Luxembourg follows 57.9 chargers per 100 km, but then the decline sets in quickly. The number 3, Germany, has ‘only’ 25.8 units per 100 km away, Portugal (4) 24.9. Belgium is in eighth place, after Italy, with 18.4 units per 100 km away.
Of the 27 EU Member States, 17 have less than 5 EV chargers per 100 km away, and six countries do not even achieve the average of 1 charger per 100 km away. These are Latvia (0.7), Poland (0.7), Estonia (0.6), Cyprus (0.4), Greece (0.4) and Lithuania at the bottom. In that country, on average, there are only 0.2 chargers per 100 km of road.
Share of (PH)EVs
At the same time, ACEA looked at the share of plug-in cars in national sales, ie plug-in hybrids and EVs together. The trade association noted similar differences there: in Lithuania this share is 3.7 percent, in the Netherlands it is 29.5. The frontrunner in this area in the EU is Sweden (45 percent), which, given the hundreds of kilometers of no man’s land to the north, scores less high when it comes to the number of chargers per 100 km of road (12.2). Last but not least in terms of (PH)EV sales are Malta (immeasurably small share), Bulgaria and Cyprus. Among the latter, EVs account for a market share of 1.7 percent. A notable entry is Denmark, which is often compared to the Netherlands. Here the share of plug-in cars in sales is still somewhat higher than with us, at 35.3 percent. Nevertheless, when it comes to chargers, the country does not go further than ninth place, with 7.7 charging points per 100 km.
| Country | Chargers per 100 km | Share of (PH)EVs in sales |
| The Netherlands | 64.3 | 29.5% |
| Luxembourg | 57.9 | 20.5% |
| Germany | 25.8 | 26.0% |
| Portugal | 24.9 | 19.7% |
| Sweden | 12.2 | 45.0% |
| Austria | 9.9 | 20.0% |
| Italy | 9.2 | 9.4% |
| Belgium | 8.8 | 18.4% |
| Denmark | 7.7 | 35.3% |
| Croatia | 6 | 4.1% |
| Finland | 4.8 | 30.8% |
| France | 3.4 | 18.3% |
| Malta | 3.4 | 0.0% |
| Slovenia | 3.3 | 3.5% |
| Slovakia | 2.9 | 3.0% |
| Bulgaria | 2.3 | 1.7% |
| Czech Republic | 1.6 | 3.2% |
| Ireland | 1.6 | 15.8% |
| Spain | 1.6 | 7.8% |
| Romania | 1.3 | 7.3% |
| Hungary | 1.1 | 7.0% |
| Latvia | 0.7 | 3.9% |
| Poland | 0.7 | 3.7% |
| Estonia | 0.6 | 2.9% |
| Cyprus | 0.4 | 1.7% |
| Greece | 0.4 | 6.9% |
| Lithuania | 0.2 | 3.7% |
It should be clear: there is still a long way to go for a complete electrification of the vehicle fleet within the EU. Literally, in this case.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl