The truth on European chargepoints
Have you heard the news? Charge point rollout across the EU is a disaster.
Data from the European Alternative Fuels Observatory shows that most countries are on course for the EU’s targets on public chargepoint provision - one of the very small number of laggard countries is 17 miles long and 9 miles wide, so perhaps has slightly different needs. But it doesn’t matter - the EU’s targets are too low, and we should be aiming for a figure 8 times higher invented by an automotive trade body which they’ve never evidenced.
Public chargepoint numbers over time - all chargers, and 150KW+ chargers
Most countries have chargepoint numbers which are growing exponentially. But if we ignore that and assume they’ll only grow linearly in future, then they’ll fall short of the Commission’s target. Which is too low anyway, remember? Disaster.
BEVs per public charge point in the EU, and the EEA + UK, Turkey, 2020-2024
Recent data shows that over the past four years, the numbers of public chargepoints have outpaced the growth of the EVs on the road, and the ratio of chargepoints to cars in the EU is better than in neighbouring countries, including Norway and the UK - which have both bought more EVs.
But I’ve got a better idea - if we look at it over a really long period, and choose a really weird measure - the onflow of cars onto the road compared with the total stock of charge points - then chargers definitely aren’t keeping pace. Like I say, a disaster.
“There is a strong correlation between public charge point availability and BEV sales".
That’s right, and when countries start to buy EVs, then the chargepoint market comes forward to service them.
But let’s pretend it’s the other way around. We need someone - it doesn’t matter who, this is just a stalling tactic, remember? - to come forward and install a made-up number of charge points to sit there unutilised earning nothing for a decade, in readiness for someone buying the EVs which we’ve already designed and know how to build but don’t want to.
Disaster.
Can we water down the vehicle emission targets now please?