The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (Acea) and Eurelectric said they welcomed the focus on infrastructure for electrically chargeable vehicles in the coronavirus recovery plan announced by the European Commission (EC).
The associations supported the goal of funding 1m public charging points in the plan but noted this objective was already part of the European Green Deal, and that it fell well below what would be required in reality.
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According to the EC's own calculations, roughly 2.8m publicly available charging points would be needed by 2030 – some 15 times more than what is currently in place across the European Union.
That is why the auto and electricity sectors have joined forces to stress the increasing urgency to revise the EU's outdated Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive (AFID).
This, adopted in 2014, is not in line with the technical development of electric vehicles or charging technologies and has also been suffering from poor implementation by member states.
ACEA and Eurelectric are now calling on the commission to accelerate its plans for the AFID review as part of the recovery plan for Europe.
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By GlobalDataThis revised directive should introduce a much more ambitious approach for rolling out charging points and hydrogen refuelling stations across the entire EU.
Infrastructure deployment (particularly across the TEN-T core and comprehensive networks and in urban areas) should be in line with the benchmarks for zero- and low-emission vehicles set by the EU for 2025 and 2030 and should consider the power classes of charging points and the charging capacities of vehicles.
Trucks and buses, for instance, have different needs to cars when it comes to infrastructure, due to their higher power and energy demand, as well as specific space, parking (for overnight charging) and access requirements.
The commission also singles out the construction and building sector in its recovery plan, earmarking funds for renovation. ACEA and Eurelectric believe that this 'renovation wave' presents an ideal opportunity to ensure that charging points are integrated into both public and private buildings, through a dedicated financial envelope and related legislation.
To boost demand after the dramatic collapse in vehicles sales seen in recent months, the EU recovery plan also foresees to promote 'clean fleet renewals'.
"We need to see rapid action on infrastructure roll out to give consumers confidence to go out and buy an electric vehicle, thereby ensuring that the fleet can be renewed in an environmentally-friendly way," said Eric-Mark Huitema, ACEA director general, in a statement.
"Embedding clean mobility in Europe's new normal requires speeding up the launch of battery electric vehicles and the rollout of charging infrastructure, as well as upgrading the grids and developing the appropriate storage solutions. These four points must be central and interlinked in any discussion on the future of mobility, as well as in recovery plans," added Kristian Ruby, secretary general of Eurelectric.
In the first quarter of 2020, the electrically chargeable car segment significantly increased its market share, rising to 6.8% of total EU car sales from 2.5% in Q1 2019.
In 2019 electric trucks made up 0.2% of the total new truck market. The figure was 1.2% for vans last year, and 4% for buses.
During the first quarter of 2020, renewables covered more than 40% of the electricity generation mix in Europe, providing electrically chargeable vehicles with the cleanest electricity in history.
In 2020, a higher output from clean sources of electricity generation has led to a 39% drop of related CO2 emissions stemming from the sector.
Earlier, Unite, the main autoworkers union in the UK, which is leaving the EU, said proposals to introduce a car scrappage scheme to help address climate change would, without additional measures to support infrastructure and the UK manufacture of electric vehicles, fail to provide a boost to the domestic car industry.
