Local Government and

Utilities Perspectives on
Europe’s E-Mobility Charging
Infrastructure

Exclusive Report Written by IQPC

In the wake of the diesel scandal in 2015, and due to existing
alternative fuel targets, there have been efforts to increase the
pace of electrification. E-Mobility has been developing for many
years but the uptake across Europe has varied between members
of the European Union for a number of different reasons. These
include the general development of electric and hybrid vehicles in
terms of range, government subsidies and rebates for
manufacturers and consumers alike, and consumer confidence in
the technology itself. One of the most pressing concerns is that of
a charging infrastructure, both in national and pan-European
terms.

Norway has often been heralded as the leading country for

electric vehicles in Europe. 2014 figures from the ACEA (the
European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association) showed that
electric vehicles made up just 1.4% of total car registrations for the
year. In contrast, by 2015 Norway has achieved a record of EV’s
accounting for 22% of all new car sales in the country. The
Netherlands and Sweden were ‘next best’ with EV’s accounting for
9.6% and 2.4% of new car sales respectively.

However, in 2015 the charging infrastructure of Norway and the

Netherlands was remarkably different. Despite the proliferation of
EV’s, Norway publically accessible charging network amounted to
7,633 units, while the Netherlands had installed as many as 23,456
charging points. It is widely acknowledged that a suitable
charging network - including fast-charging stations - should be
installed throughout the continent in order to enable the
transition to electric vehicles on a large scale.

The question this poses is, should the infrastructure be developed

to keep up with demand for EV’s? Or should the infrastructure be
put in place in order to stimulate increased demand for EV’s?
While the automotive industry is obviously a key player in this
area, the EU, individual European governments and energy
companies are all significant stakeholders in a continent-wide
initiative.
 Developing a charging infrastructure

The EU ‘Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive’ (2014), offers one

estimate of the desired number of charging points per number of
electric vehicles - at least one charging point per 10 EV’s, always
taking into account new developments in vehicle, battery and
charging infrastructure technology, and assuming that most
private owners install their own charging point. The more recently
published ‘European Strategy for Low-Emission Mobility’ (2016),
recognised that a charging and maintenance infrastructure needs
to become widely available throughout Europe in order to achieve
mass acceptance and deployment of electric vehicles.

The ‘Electric Vehicles in Europe’ (2016) report from the European

Environment Agency placed average figures of public charging
points at: over 14,000 in Germany, more than 13,000 in France, and
over 11,500 in the UK. The countries with the least amount of
public charging points (fewer than 40) include Bulgaria, Cyprus,
Lithuania and Iceland.

The EU established the Trans‑European Transport Network (TEN-

T) programme to support the construction and upgrade of
infrastructure across the continent, including projects to develop
high-powered fast-charging stations to help enable long-distance
travel and to counter ‘range anxiety’. Proposals were put forward
as part of the ‘Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive’ (2014) to
require member states to meet targets for charging points which
would have resulted in up to 8 million charging points by 2020,
but these proposals were dropped during negotiations on the
directive. Instead, governments were required to come up with
national action plans on charging infrastructure, and to install ‘an
appropriate number of electric recharging points accessible to the
public’ by the end of 2020. At the present time then, there is a
natural disparity between the proliferation of EV’s and the
development of infrastructure across various member states.
 The role of energy companies

EURELECTRIC - the Union of the electricity industry - represents

the common interests of the electricity industry at pan-European
level and consists of members representing the industry in 32
European countries. The trade body released a position paper
entitled, ‘Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles’ in 2016,
which provides a general insight into the perspective of the
electricity industry towards a the development of a charging
network.

The report highlights the ‘limited availability of charging

infrastructure, including the lack of adequate business and
finance models, as the biggest obstacle to the widespread
adoption of EV’s by customers’. The reports also highlights, from a
service provider point of view, the ‘circularity problem of market
operators who are wary of investing in the needed infrastructure
without having any visibility to what its actual utilisation will be in
view of the uncertain adoption rate of EV’s, as well as potential
interoperability issues’. EURELECTRIC distinguishes between four
general categories of charging infrastructure, the classification of
which it says is important from both a commercial and technical
perspective:

1. Public charging station on public domain (e.g.

roadside/sidewalk);

2. Publicly accessible charging station on private domain (e.g.

commercial areas such as shopping malls);

3. Semi-public charging station on public or private domain (e.g.

car sharing CS, hotels or business parking for visitors and
customers);

4. Privately accessible charging station (e.g. home or office

locations).
Among a number of recommendations for the development of
charging infrastructure, the report also highlights a range of
insights on technical issues and the impact of EV’s on the
electricity grid and smart charging. EURELECTRIC warned that
although EV charging is feasible in terms of the total amount of
consumed energy (kWh), it could have a greater impact on
demand (KW) at certain times in certain areas. This will need to be
mitigated by means of smart ICT systems in order to prevent
issues such as evening peak loads and potential problems such as
transformer or cable overloads.

E.ON

International energy company, E.ON, already operates 12,000

public charging points and 39 fast-chargers in Denmark, and has
started to develop charging networks in both the UK and Sweden.
In July 2017 E.ON announced a strategic partnership with electric
mobility service operator, CLEVER (owned by a consortium of
Scandinavian energy operators), which has already deployed a
fast-charging network in Denmark, Sweden and Northern
Germany.

The ambition of this partnership is to roll out ultra-fast charging

stations for EV’s along main European motorway corridors,
whereby several hundred charging stations will be installed every
120-180 kilometres along the motorways. In addition to this
agreement, E.ON is also working with German service station
brand Tank and Rast to deliver an ultra-fast charging network
allowing EV drivers to travel the 600 miles through Germany from
North to South.

In November 2017, E.ON announced further plans to expand its

charging network to over 10,000 charging points across Europe by
2020.
 Enel

Italian energy company Enel is another which is set to invest in

and expand its charging network in the coming years. In
November 2017, the firm announced its plans to invest €100-300
million on the development of a widespread charging
infrastructure, with the programme anticipated to see 7,000
charging points installed by 2020, increasing to 14,000 by 2022.

The company’s ‘National plan for the installation of electric vehicle

charging infrastructure’, envisages widespread coverage of all
Italian regions. The network will include Quick (22 kW) charging
stations in urban areas, with fast (50 kW) and ultra-fast (150 kW)
charging station in extra-urban areas. Some 80% of these
charging points will be installed in urban areas, with 21% in major
metropolitan areas and 57% in other cities. the remaining 20%
will be installed in other areas around the country to facilitate
short, medium and long-range travel in non-urban areas and on
motorways. The latter category includes charging points of the
EVA+ (Electric Vehicles Arteries), co-financed by the European
commission, which includes the installation of 180 charging
points on non-urban Italian roads over the next three years.

Shell

Energy giant Shell is another to establish a presence in the

charging sector, and in November 2017 officially announced an
agreement with IONITY - a joint venture between BMW, Daimler,
Ford and Volkswagen.

The aim of the consortium is to install 400 HPC (High-powered

charging) points by 2020 across Europe, with 80 slated to be
installed at Shell highway sites in 2019. The partnership will
enable IONITY to install fast-charging infrastructure in ten
European countries: Belgium, France, Great Britain, Austria,
Poland, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic
and Hungary.
Other IONITY site partners include Tank and Rast in Germany,
Austrian company OMV - with which it will work on the network
in Austria, Slovenia the Czech Republic and Hungary, and Circle K
in Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and
Sweden.

The IONITY technology will, in the future, enable cars with

advanced charging capacity of up to 350 kW to recharge within as
little as 5-8 minutes.

Summary

The electric revolution that some predicted has never

materialised, and realistically, it has been more of a gradual
evolution as technology, legislation and infrastructure has
allowed. the central question facing the various stakeholders was
alluded to earlier: Should the infrastructure be put in place in
order to stimulate growth in the EV sector, or should
infrastructure develop to suit the necessary demand as it arises?
EU regulations for cleaner transportation have always been
lingering in the background and perhaps the diesel scandal has
brought the issues closer to the spotlight. Investment in EV and
battery technology among manufacturers has increased
significantly in the last two years, and EU publications hint at
taking the former approach - namely investing in infrastructure to
increase demand for electric vehicles.

Such a dramatic change to transportation networks will require

stakeholders at all levels to work together in order to implement a
smart framework which has no negative impact on the electricity
grid, while developing the technology and infrastructure which
enables consumers to utilise ultra-fast charging and facilitates
long-range travel.
 References

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/electric-vehicles-in-europe
Aurelie Faure-Schuyer, “E-mobility: European Energy and Transport
Policies at cross-roads”, Edito Energie, Ifri, September 20, 2016.
https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/edito_e_mobility_fa
ure.pdf
http://www.eurelectric.org/media/285584/ev_and_charging_infrastru
cture_final-2016-2310-0001-01-e.pdf
http://www.eurelectric.org/news/2017/eu-buildings-law-must-ensure-
uptake-of-charging-infrastructure-for-electric-vehicles/
https://www.eon.com/en/about-us/media/press-release/2017/eon-
and-clever-cooperate-on-ultra-fast-charging-e-mobility.html
https://www.enel.com/media/press/d/2017/11/e-mobility-revolution-
enel-presents-the-charging-infrastructure-plan-for-italy
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352146516308651
https://www.rvo.nl/sites/default/files/2013/11/E-
mobility%20in%20the%20Netherlands.pdf
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-batteries-shell/shell-and-
carmakers-aim-to-go-the-distance-with-highway-charging-
idUSKBN1DR00G

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