Most EU countries on track to meet charging targets

(Transport and Environment, 17 Apr 2024) Charging is perceived as one of the biggest barriers to people switching to electric vehicles, but the picture is improving fast, new analysis shows.

There has been a three-fold increase in the number of EV public chargers in the EU in the last three years, new T&E analysis finds. There were more than 630,000 charge points in the bloc at the end of 2023, and the charging network grew faster last year than the electric vehicle fleet.

Most EU countries already met their 2024 EU targets for public charging infrastructure in 2023, according to the analysis of national charging networks and projected EV fleet growth. Under the EU Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), which entered into force on Saturday, each country has annual targets based on a ratio of total charging power output and the number of electric cars on the road. 

Of the countries which have not yet reached their 2024 targets, Portugal, Hungary and Lithuania will likely catch up by the 31 December deadline. Greece and Ireland have the most work to do but can still meet their targets by rapidly building infrastructure this year, T&E said. Luxembourg, Cyprus and Malta also lag behind but can easily achieve the targets with modest amounts of new chargers due to the small size of their EV fleets.

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Transport and Environment, 17 Apr 2024: Most EU countries on track to meet charging targets