Governments and electricity companies must create the conditions for accelerated construction of charging infrastructure if Europe wants to be ready for 130 million electric vehicles by 2035, according to a report by EY and Eurelectrica “Energy sector accelerates e-mobility”, Glas Istre reports. Europe will need 65 million charging stations, nine million in public areas, and 56 million in housing, to provide infrastructure for a significantly higher number of electric vehicles compared to today’s 3.3 million.

In 2021, every eleventh new car in the EU was fully electric, and 63% more were sold than in 2020, according to the ACEA. Europe currently has 374,000 public filling stations, two-thirds of which are in only five countries. Europe currently has 374,000 public bottling plants, two-thirds of which are in five countries, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Others do not have a single filling station per 100 kilometers of road. The authors of the report warn that this polarization could destabilize the electrification process.

Growing sales of electric vehicles will increase European electricity demand by 11 percent a year, the report also said. To mitigate the risk to local distribution networks, they recommend support for smart charging solutions, such as affordable overnight charging tariffs when energy consumption is lower, which could reduce power demand spikes by 21 percent.