The European Parliament approved this Wednesday a European directive on the implementation of an infrastructure for alternative fuels (AFIR, for its acronym in English) that creates binding objectives for all the countries of the European Union (EU) in terms of the number of electric recharging points on the roads of each country.
Specifically, it establishes a minimum coverage of the recharging infrastructure that sets the maximum distance between stations in both directions of the road at 60 kilometers, in addition to the fact that public access recharging points for light vehicles have “sufficient power available”.
As explained to ABC Citizens MEP Susana Solís, this directive is the first to create binding targets for all member states when it comes to installing charging points for electric vehicles (light and heavy). It also establishes the principles “to ensure the real homogeneity of criteria throughout the EU in this matter and that each country does not go by itself”.
According to Solís “we have been testing how much this would mean in figures and it is estimated that in 2035 there should be 613,000 points distributed throughout the country, when there are currently only 15,772. It is also proposed in the regulation that there be a charger every 60 kilometers in 2035, a milestone that if I am not mistaken is also shared by the automobile industry«.
With this Regulation, according to the MEP, very ambitious initial goals to end “charging point anxiety” and promote the use of electric vehicles. The law foresees a progressive reduction of these binding objectives until their elimination since, at that moment, the market itself will be capable of self-regulation. Solís explains that measures of this type guarantee “the deployment of fast chargers, which allow the vehicle to be charged in half an hour. We cannot let an American or Chinese company dominate this type of charger and, in this sense, Spain is to the queue of fast chargers of Europe with only 17%«.
For each electric vehicle, a charging power obligation is established that starts at 3KW in the event that the fleet of electric cars is less than 1% and that would be reduced to 1KW when the implementation of electric cars exceeds 7.5%. As one variable increases, the other will decrease proportionally.
Exemptions to peripheral regions
Despite considering this text as positive, Solís clarifies critical aspects, such as the approval of an amendment “that allows exemptions to the outermost regions and islands in terms of recharging points. We can not create first-class and second-class territories and it is precisely in the territories with a more complicated application in which it is more important that the binding objectives are maintained. The same thing happens in unpopulated areas«.
From the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers ACEA they have also shown their satisfaction with the approval of this regulation, assuring that “we are pleased that MEPs have injected more ambition into this regulationincreasing the national targets for both charging points and hydrogen filling stations, compared to the Commission proposal.”
For the CEO of ACEA, Sigrid de Vries “after all, infrastructure is an essential part of the decarbonization equation of transport, along with affordable zero-emission vehicles.” However, even with these strengthened goals, he believes this plan will only provide a minimal network of infrastructure, which will need to be supplemented by private sector initiatives. Thus, for de Vries »EU policy makers should support this by de-risking investments and accelerating planning and permitting procedures, including network upgrades«.
The position of environmentalists
from the organization Transport & Environment (T&E) have welcomed the approval of this directive since, in their view, “The European Parliament has endorsed electric car charging targets which, if accepted by governments, would ensure that drivers can recharge (electric vehicles) publicly at all the corners of Europe by 2025 at the latest“, the organization has highlighted.
T&E has also emphasized that the directive that was voted on Wednesday will facilitate the creation of “many charging points” for electric heavy vehicles. “EU countries should have a charging capacity of 2,000 kilowatts per 60 kilometers along the bloc’s main transport routes in 2025, increasing to 5,000 kilowatts in 2030. From 2030, the targets will apply to the entire the network and heavy vehicles will be able to fully recharge during a mandatory driver rest“, he added.