Charging stations in Europe: how many and where are they in 2022? Charging stations in Europe: how many and where are they in 2022?

How much does it cost charging stations exist in the European Union? Still few if we think that in order to achieve the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 (compared to 1990) in the 27 member countries, a number of electrified vehicles should circulate in such a way as to require approximately 6.8 million public charging stations. An objective almost impossible to achieve at current rates if we consider that the latest report from the ACEA (Association of European Automobile Manufacturers) updated to 2022 estimated that in Europe there were hardly more 479,000 charging stations. This means that to reach the predetermined number in just eight years, they would have to be installed 14,000 per weekwhereas today the average is less than 2,000.

ELECTRICAL COLUMNS IN EUROPE: FEW CHARGING POINTS BUT IMPROVEMENT IN THE NUMBER

It is unfortunate that the spread of new columns proceed so slowly, because the poor distribution of charging points in the territory, especially the fastest ones, is one of the reasons slow down the expansion of electric cars in Europe, even if the numbers are increasing (almost everywhere but not in Italy given that in 2022, after years of continuous growth, all-electric cars have lost around one point of market share). In fact, most European countries, including Italy, have approved major increase the number of public columns in the coming years. Here, for example, thanks to PNRR funds, it will be possible to create 21,000 new charging stations on motorways and in cities by 2025, and soon it will also be the turn of motorways. We don’t know if this will be enough to meet the ambitious 2030 goal, but we’re trying anyway.

HOW MANY CHARGING COLUMNS ARE THERE IN EUROPE?

And now we come to the figures from the ACEA report on the number of charging stations in Europe updated throughout 2022. As mentioned, the total is just close to 480,000, with the aggravating circumstance that 42% of infrastructure is concentrated in just two countries, the Netherlands and Germany, which by extension cover less than 10% of the territory of the European Union. The distribution is therefore quite large unequal with some states well ahead and others well behind, some close to zero. Just think that the Netherlands has 70 times more charging stations than Romania, despite the latter being 7 times larger.

Here is the situation of public charging stations in the 27 EU states updated to 2022:

• Netherlands: 111,821
• Germany: 87,674
• France: 83,317
• Italy: 37,186
• Spain: 34,380
• Sweden: 25,465
• Belgium: 24,159
• Austria: 22,874
• Denmark: 11,055
• Portugal: 7,716
• Finland: 6,121
• Czech Republic: 3,962
• Poland: 3,842
• Hungary: 3,622
• Slovakia: 2,713
• Ireland: 2,535
• Luxemburg: 2,387
• Slovenia: 1,893
• Romania: 1,658
• Croatia: 1,285
• Bulgaria: 1,091
• Greece: 1,021
• Latvia: 660
• Lithuania: 477
• Estonia: 300
• Cyprus: 69
• Malta: 13.

It is fair to point out that although Italy has less than half the charging points of France and Germany, having fewer electric cars on the road than these two countries, it can boast a best car/column ratio: 9.7 (that is to say that for 9.7 cars there is a column) against 13 in France and 22 in Germany.

The following graph shows the progression from 2020 to 2022, by quarter, of the total number of public charging stations in Europedistinguishing direct current (DC), which is faster, from alternating current (AC), which is slower.

MARKET SHARE OF ELECTRIFIED CARS IN EUROPE

The ACEA study reports another interesting fact, namely the electrified car market share (100% electric + plug-in hybrid) in 2022 in each of the 27 EU countries, important for understanding the degree of penetration of electricity in different states (and make a comparison with the staggering of charging points). Here, we Italians are really far behind, while the Nordic countries are the masters.

• Sweden: 56.1%
• Denmark: 38.6%
• Finland: 37.6%
• Netherlands: 34.5%
• Germany: 31.4%
• Belgium: 26.5%
• Luxemburg: 24.3%
• Ireland: 22.2%
• Austria: 22.1%
• Portugal: 21.7%
• France: 21.5%
• Spain: 9.6%
• Romania: 9%
• Italy: 8.7%
• Hungary: 8.6%
• Latvia: 8.2%
• Greece: 7.9%
• Lithuania: 7.9%
• Slovenia: 6.2%
• Cyprus: 5.4%
• Estonia: 5.4%
• Croatia: 5.1%
• Poland: 5%
• Bulgaria: 4%
• Czech Republic: 3.9%
• Slovakia: 3.7%
• Malta: na.