ABB, T&E, & Others Push For Strong EV Charging Plans & Unity In Europe

July 8, 20213 years ago Zachary Shahan 0 Comments

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The European Union is seeing massive growth in electric vehicle market share. This has been one of the biggest and most exciting stories of the past year and a half in the electric vehicle industry. One side of it that gets little attention, though, is that massive growth in EV sales really requires massive growth in EV charging infrastructure. (Well, Maarten and José have been pointing that out — they drive electric vehicles in Europe and see the changes on the ground.)

Several European organizations and companies are also well aware of the issue and are pushing for the EU to increase its ambitions — significantly — with some upcoming policy updates. They are also calling for … unification. “The revision of the EU’s Alternative Fuels Infrastructure law is the opportunity to create an EU-wide single recharging market,” Transport & Environment (T&E) writes. “Market players — be it automotive manufacturers, recharge point operators or customers — need this common single market to benefit from the right conditions to play their part in the mass adoption of zero emission road transport.”

A full letter [PDF] to policymakers can be read here, and these are the companies and organizations behind it:

Will this push the EU in the direction it needs to go in order to accommodate higher and higher EV market share? But it’s good to see them focusing on a holistic approach to EV policy on the EU level. Here’s more:

The letter adds: “A revision of the AFID under a new directive cannot provide the right framework as it would perpetuate the current patchwork of different national interpretations, implementation and requirements. The European Court of Auditors has recently highlighted that the current framework has led to a ‘fragmentation in electro-mobility’ with ‘differences in the density of recharging infrastructure and the Member States’ EV ownership rates’. Pursuing in this direction would not be adequate or sufficient to address the challenge of deploying millions of public and private chargers in the next few years.”

ICE’d in Paris (3 spots on this street reserved for EV charging were ICE’D). Image by CleanTechnica.

Will the organizations and companies pushing for this? How much will EU policy improve in order to quickly grow and better unify EV charging across the continent? Let us know down in the comments below.