Running out of charge: Europe’s public EV infrastructure needs a serious push

22,000 public charging points. That’s how many must be installed weekly to achieve the 55% CO2 reduction target by for cars and vans by 2030. But EU countries are falling short, with only 150,000 installed last year.

Sigrid de Vries is the Director General of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), representing 15 major Europe-based car, van, truck, and bus manufacturers.

The drive toward electric vehicles (EVs) is a cornerstone of the EU’s strategy to decarbonise road transport. With ambitious targets to reduce car and van CO2 emissions by 55% by 2030 and a 100% reduction by 2035, massively transitioning to electric vehicles is not a choice – it’s a must.

However, simply setting targets without prioritising charging point build-up is not a smart decarbonisation strategy. Europe is significantly behind in its rollout of public charging stations. Today, there are only around 630,000, far less than the 3.5 million needed by 2030 as estimated by the European Commission.

This figure is at a lower end though, a fact acknowledged by the Commission. More realistic estimates project the need for 8.8 million charging points by 2030.

But irrespective of the numbers used, the message is clear: EU member states have less than a decade to meet ambitious decarbonisation targets, and infrastructure build-up is just not keeping pace.

Charging infrastructure has a social dimension

Current charging infrastructure in the EU is not only insufficient in scale but also in distribution. Many countries, particularly in central and eastern Europe, are drastically underserved, creating a two-tier system with wealthier, western European countries ahead of the pack. Indeed, almost two-thirds of EU charging points are concentrated in just three member states – the Netherlands, France, and Germany.

This imbalance threatens the foundational EU principle of cohesion and risks creating disparities in how citizens can participate in and benefit from the green transition. A disproportionate concentration in urban and affluent areas can also lead to a significant imbalance in EV adoption rates across regions, exacerbating social and economic divides.

Europe must also do a better job of tailoring infrastructure deployment strategies to local conditions and needs. Installing new charging stations in crowded urban areas (where congestion is an issue and parking is in short supply) requires a different approach than electrifying rural and remote areas.

But the current data unambiguously shows that the regions with the highest share of battery-electric cars on the road also have the highest number of charging points per 1,000 inhabitants and per 10km of road. Better infrastructure means better EV adoption rates, so that means we need better policies to incentivise build-up.

It’s not just about the number of stations

Each station requires not just space and equipment but also integration with a power grid that was never designed to handle such a concentrated load. Burdensome and lengthy permitting and planning permission rules are major hurdles to faster installation.

So too is existing power grid capacity. Substantial grid upgrades are essential to expanding EV charging stations and increasing the renewable energy mix but this comes at a cost – a whopping €240 billion investment by 2030. Power companies must be on board for the transition too.

The EV charging industry is also not yet fully mature, with the number of charge point operators still growing. The charging market is also fragmented, with a high number of small national players, many of them start-ups.

Margins are low, and the return on investment is even lower. 80% of EU member states do not offer any incentives for infrastructure development or installation. That needs to change urgently to drive much-needed investments into this fledgling sector.

Fortunately, we are not starting from scratch: EU charging point infrastructure build-up has seen a six-fold increase since 2017. And importantly, the installation of private charging points at home, logistics depots, and office parking spaces is on the rise too – where a lot of charging will happen.

Yet the magnitude of the challenge means the deployment of public charging points needs to pick up pace, if the EU is serious about making EVs a practical reality for all Europeans within the next five years.

Achieving our shared goals means far more than just setting targets for vehicle manufacturers. It means smart policies and incentives. Europe’s charging infrastructure build-up risks running out of charge if policy makers fail to make the right decisions today to power widespread and accessible EV adoption in the future.