Is Europe’s charging station network keeping up with the demand for EVs?

With oil price zooming, more and more governments started to crack down on combustion engines to curb global warming. Hence the drivers tend to switch to an electric vehicle.

For many people living in the EU, electrification may even soon become an obligation as the EU moves closer to banning the sale of new petrol or diesel cars from 2035.

But for now, charging stations are still very unevenly distributed. As what happened during the past summer holiday, new and prospective owners remain nervous when taking a long trip in their electric vehicles, with a nagging fear that they might run out of power before reaching a charging station.

Apart from the patchy infrastructure in many areas of EU, the providers and payment systems are different from each other, too.

There’s reason to be optimistic, though. More and more dedicated Apps were invented to assist drivers in navigating the jungle of charging stations and mapping their trips.

Taking Chargemap as an example, its users can access more than six hundred operators and some 230, 000 charging stations across Europe with €20 monthly card cost.

It can also help companies control the costs incurred by their electric fleets. Chargemap already has some 400 business clients that use its badges like company fuel cards.

Chargemap is well placed to describe just how uneven Europe’s charging infrastructure is.

“I’d say it goes from the Nordic countries which are very well equipped, to the Southern countries which are much less equipped,” Chargemap CEO said so.

“So if you’re going on vacation to Spain or Portugal, it’s going to be somewhat tricky,” he said, advising EV drivers to prepare their trip carefully.

With more EVs hit the roads, more charging points are established up. The investment in infrastructure is as well recouped quickly.

AG's products are also involved in the construction of such European infrastructure, and we will cooperate more with local companies in the future to help and witness charging stations popping up.

According to ChargeUp Europe, compared with records in 2015, the number of publicly accessible charging stations has increased sixfold. Those actually only occupy less than 20% of the overall number of charging points in Europe. The vast majority of charging stations occurs in private residential or commercial buildings. Here we can find great potential of charging station network.