EU needs eight times more car charging points per year to meet EV demand: ACEA

The EU needs to install almost eight times more electric vehicle (EV) charging points per year than it did in 2023 to meet forecast demand, European autos group ACEA said on Monday.

More than 150,000 public charging points were installed last year across the bloc, said ACEA, for a total of more than 630,000.

That is far short of the about 410,000 needed annually just for the EC to reach its target of 3.5-million by 2030, it said.

However, demand has quickly outpaced that target, warned ACEA, with EU EV sales growing three times faster than charging point installations between 2017 and 2023.

“We are concerned that infrastructure rollout has not kept pace with battery-electric car sales in recent years,” said ACEA DG Sigrid de Vries.

“What is more, this 'infrastructure gap' risks widening in the future to a much greater extent than EC estimates.”

ACEA estimated that 8.8-million charging points will be needed by 2030 to meet demand, which amounts to 1.2-million per year — or eight times more than the number installed last year.

“Investments in public charging infrastructure must be urgently ramped up if we are to close the infrastructure gap and meet climate target,” added De Vries.