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EV charging sector in Europe - 2021
Sector Outlook in 2021
Even if electric cars are mostly charged at home and at work, public electric car charging points are also needed. We especially need fast chargers to support long-distance travel and reduce charging times to allow more EV drivers to use and share charging points. As Charge Teknoloji, we have both solutions for personal use at home (Electrise Home and Electrise Home Mini) and for public use (Electrise City and Electrise CityMax) which are also compatible with DC and AC charging. Let’s see what is going on within these markets in Europe and analyze the perception of driving EVs.
The EV market is booming in Europe with the support of ambitious carbon emission-free measures and financial help with the European Green Deal. While more fossil-fuel vehicles are still sold compared to EVs, it is expected that 2 in 5 new cars sold worldwide to be electric by 2030.
The main reason which slows down the EV market is the skepticism about the ability to travel long distances in an EV, without constantly stopping to recharge or running out of power in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, we have more and more public EV chargers on our roads to charge batteries. That’s why especially in Europe, the EV market is growing really fast. Norway (18.1 %), Iceland (5.5 %), Sweden (3.7 %), and the Netherlands (3.2 %) are leading in terms of the number of EVs sold compared to the total of all passenger cars on the road. China, Germany, the EU, and the US are leading the way regarding pure sales volume.
The recent data shows that the fear of running out of battery while driving is irrelevant even in 2021. On average this year, the EU offers five fast public chargers for every 100 km. And we are not forced to stop very often for charging, given that most EVs can now easily travel 400+ km on a full charge. All this information should come as a relief to current and future EV drivers.
Another common argument against EV charging is the fear of queueing for long hours to access a public charging station. An EU-appointed commission in 2014 decided that a maximum of 10 EVs could be supported per Public Charging Point (PCP) across Europe to ensure enough room for everyone to charge when needed. Even in 2021, our current ratio is approximately 7.5 EVs per PCP, and we see that most countries already fulfill the recommendations set by the EU in 2014.
But in the future, that could change. Because the number of EVs is increasing faster than ever. This means that we need more and more public EV charging stations if we want to stay within the recommended limit of 10 EVs per public charging point. Fortunately, the latest estimates seem to show that we could meet the EV charging demand in Europe. Of course, hitting this target requires investments. For instance, we need to deploy another 2.7 million public charging points in Europe by 2030 which requires an investment averaging €1.8 billion (only 3 % of the EU’s annual budget for roads and infrastructure).
The biggest market in the EU is expected to be Germany, with 300k public chargers estimated in 2025 and 700k public chargers estimated in 2030. Right now, Germany has 25k public chargers, so there will be a great boom in the years ahead.
In another aspect, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have had a positive impact on EV sales. Compared to the pre-pandemic early research estimations, pandemic-adjusted research shows that we’ll have 22% more electric vehicles by 2030. But in the meantime, the estimated ratio of EV’s per public chargers will be 13.79. So, the increasing numbers of EVs will indeed force us to produce more EV charger points in order to stay within the recommended limit of the EU.
Whether you want to invest in public EV chargers, or you want to bring value to domestic EV charger markets, Charge Teknoloji is by your side. Check out our website to find out more about our EV charger solutions.
Source: Transportenvironment.org (2021)