EV charging landscape after AFIR: priorities and challenges ahead
10th April 2024, Brussels For Immediate Release
Landmark EU legislation will help catalyse a Single Market for electric vehicle charging & form the foundation of electric Heavy Duty Vehicle charging. It is now for each EU Member State to implement AFIR swiftly and precisely and create the enabling conditions for the further mainstreaming of e-mobility in their country.
In AFIR, the EU now has a piece of legislation setting the overarching governance framework for publicly accessible electric vehicle (EV) charging in Europe and uniting various national and regional EV charging networks, which will benefit all EV drivers. AFIR will also further drive the expansion of charging infrastructure, especially for Heavy Duty Vehicles (HDV).
Charging targets for cars and vans
The targets will ensure that as more EVs are driven in the EU, the charging infrastructure expands accordingly. The charging targets must be met by Member States every year. At the moment, already 26 out of 27 Member States have met them, in most cases they far exceed the target. Moreover, the added distance-based targets along main EU roads will lead to the deployment of many more chargers, ensuring that EV drivers can make long range trips smoothly and seamlessly, without range anxiety.
Factors to watch: AFIR is an important milestone for the EU on the public charging side. Targets play a role in defining the direction and pace of transition in the EV charging sector, but they do not put in place enabling conditions for the rollout of infrastructure on the ground. There is no full transition without a well-developed private charging infrastructure. The vast majority of EV charging takes place in homes, workplaces and depots, which are outside of the scope of AFIR. National Policy Frameworks called for in AFIR require Member States to plan for the rollout of EV charging holistically, including addressing enabling conditions and bottlenecks. These elements will ultimately define the level of success of any country's efforts, not just the targets in AFIR.
New chargers for Heavy Duty Vehicles
AFIR’s distance-based targets for heavy duty vehicles (for example, every 100 km on key roads) will form the foundation of the charging network for electrified trucking.
Factors to watch: AFIR largely treats EV charging as a “brick-and-mortar” question, with a focus on the rollout of physical infrastructure. However, it does not tackle the major bottlenecks experienced by charge point operations including grid connection and permitting processes, which are especially acute in the case of charging for HDVs.
Harmonizing the experience of EV users
AFIR sets forward harmonization of price components (price per minute, session or kWh) and how to pay for an EV charging session (based on the power level of the charger). AFIR also requires standardized ‘point of interest’ information about charging stations, such as connector type, availability and whether it is powered by renewable energy. This significantly improves consumer experience, particularly for longer, cross-border trips.
Factors to watch: Standardization requirements outlined in AFIR will ensure that whichever Charge Point Operator or Mobility Service Provider network a driver is charging in, the price components will be the same for that category. Member States are responsible for overseeing the marketplace, and they will also be responsible for establishing National Access Points (NAPs) to collect the required data about the charging infrastructure.
Linkages with, and benefits to, energy systems
Member States must prepare national policy frameworks before the end of 2024, explaining how they plan on meeting the targets of AFIR. By October 14, 2024 operators must ensure that public charging points are digitally-connected charging points, and that all public charging points built or repaired after April 13, 2024 are capable of smart charging.
Factors to watch: There are two additional tasks that Member States have received from AFIR in 2024, which will help establish the foundations for better integration of energy and transport systems. Firstly, by June 2024, Member States must evaluate how the development and operation of charging infrastructure can enhance the role of EVs in improving the flexibility of the power system and supporting the use of more renewable energy. Moreover, each MS is tasked with evaluating the potential impact of bidirectional charging to determine how it can decrease costs for users and for the overall system, and help add more renewable energy to the grid.
Quotes
Remco Samuels, CEO of EVBox, President of ChargeUp Europe
"April 13th, 2024, will go down in history as the day that the EU stepped up and created a single market for public EV charging. Moving from a Directive to a Regulation was a hugely important step in this regard. Capitalising on the size of the EU single market and combining it with the torque of an average EV, AFIR has laid out some very important governing principles that should regulate our market for decades to come. However, whilst we are well underway, we are not quite there yet. At present we do not have a fully functional single market for EV Charging hardware. Product requirements currently differ widely across the EU, fragmenting our market. We need to create a single EU type approval regime for EV charging hardware to align on those. On another front our industry needs clarity on the treatment of VAT for EV charging goods and services. The different regimes that are currently in place across the EU today are a real challenge for many of our members, all of whom operate across national borders. The current VAT gordian knot rapidly needs unravelling. Let’s solve these obstacles and allow our industry to scale at speed."
Mathieu Bonnet, CEO of Allego, Vice President of ChargeUp Europe
"EV charging is more than just brick and mortar: it's also building the right partnerships, and crucially, developing the right software. Software and tech dictate how power will ultimately flow into cars from the charging infrastructure. That digital frontier is critical."
Vera Pinto Pereira, Executive Board Member of EDP Group, ChargeUp Europe Board Member
“As we advance towards decarbonization, integrating electric vehicles as assets into the grid is crucial for optimizing power usage and grid resources. Bidirectional charging and storage system integration enhance renewable energy integration, fostering a more sustainable and resilient energy system. Also, the exponential growth of technology and the expanding digital environment surrounding customers are cornerstone to the e-mobility landscape. Placing these elements at the core of our policies and applied technologies is key to ensure a seamless and coherent experience.”
Sofia Diakhate, COO of Plugsurfing, ChargeUp Europe Board Member
"While we welcome AFIR, it is important to understand that it is only the first step required in bringing more clarity for EV drivers. Article 5 outlines many requirements for ad-hoc charging, but also customers having accounts with chosen mobility service providers deserve such clear and transparent pricing as well. Additionally, requiring data sharing from Article 20 doesn’t necessarily solve much in itself if the data is not of high enough quality and shared in real-time —this should be the focus of next waves of regulation.”
Peter Badik, CEO of GreenWay, ChargeUp Europe Board Member
“AFIR is an important milestone in the growth and mainstreaming of e-mobility, especially in the less developed markets of Central & Eastern Europe. However, for us to continue to deploy EV charging to keep up with the growth of the EV fleet, especially for heavy duty vehicles, the grid connection and permitting timelines and complexity need to be addressed. This problem is only growing as demand grows, and it’s the #1 bottleneck we’re facing to the rapid rollout of infrastructure.”
Florian Glattes, Vice President E-Mobility Solutions of Shell Recharge, ChargeUp Europe Board Member
“AFIR is a key moment for e-mobility in the EU, assuring drivers of more and better charging infrastructure. We now call on the EU to further establish and maintain the wider policy framework that enables long term investment certainty and customer demand for EV charging.”
Michiel Langezaal, CEO of FastNed, ChargeUp Europe Board Member
"2024 is the decision-making year for European politics. To encourage the transition to sustainable mobility, it should be made as easy as possible for consumers to use it. Therefore, it is crucial that we achieve a level playing field in Europe for market players.
Vertical integration hampers fair competition by consolidating both the sales of EVs and their charging needs among a number of parties. It creates barriers for consumers to make choices and for new players to enter the market and compete with current players. This results in diminished competitiveness, which impacts the availability of options, quality of services, and price levels for European citizens. The European Union has the responsibility to apply existing competition rules to facilitate the development of a sustainable and competitive charging market. A crucial step towards sustainable mobility in Europe. "
André ten Bloemendal, Senior Vice President (Europe) of ChargePoint, ChargeUp Europe Treasurer
"ChargePoint welcomes the application of AFIR, especially as we are one of the first to support the market with AFIR compliant hardware. While the targets will help drive the market for overall EV uptake, we believe countries should go beyond the bare minimum especially when it comes to e-HDV infrastructure to accelerate the e-mobility business case for all drivers. "
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Media contacts:
Annija Bertule annija@chargeupeurope.eu
About ChargeUp Europe
ChargeUp Europe is the industry association for the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure sector. Our association works to accelerate the switch to zero emission mobility and ensure that EV drivers can enjoy a seamless charging experience with access to high quality, readily available charging infrastructure across Europe. As of today, our 33 member companies are active in all 27 EU Member States, the UK and EFTA, with over 300,000 charging points in the EU.