Recovery plan

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) and Eurelectric have welcomed the focus on infrastructure for electric vehicles in the coronavirus recovery plan announced by the European Commission.

They support the goal of funding one million public charging points referred to in the plan, but say it falls well below what will be required in reality. Latest estimates suggest roughly 2.8 million publicly-available charging points will be needed by 2030. The two associations stress the urgency to revise the EU’s outdated Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive (AFID) which they say is not in line with the development of EVs or charging technologies. They want the Commission to accelerate its plans for an AFID review as part of the recovery plan and say there should be a more ambitious approach to rolling out charging points and hydrogen refuelling stations across the EU.