ChargeUp Europe, the voice of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure sector in Europe, has named Christopher Burghardt, Managing Director Europe, ChargePoint as President for its first full year of operations. The nomination comes as the informal alliance launched early this year by Allego, ChargePoint and EVBox Group becomes a formal industry association in 2021.

Since its launch on 31 March 2020, the alliance has grown from its three initial founders to 11 full industry members. Compleo and Last Mile Solutions are the latest new members announced at a high- level event organised by ChargeUp Europe on 3 December, along with EVRoaming Foundation as ChargeUp Europe’s first knowledge partner.

The event brought together speakers from industry, civil society and the public sector to discuss polices needed to accelerate the roll-out of EV charging infrastructure and support the practical needs of EV drivers.

ChargeUp Europe was honoured that European Commissioner for Transport, Adina Valean provided the keynote speech for the event, highlighting the need to accelerate the rollout of EV charging infrastructure, ensure technical interoperability, improve the driver experience and create the conditions for the integration of EVs into the grid.

Over the coming years, ChargeUp Europe will work with the European Commission and others to deliver on these goals, building a harmonized EU EV charging infrastructure market that delivers for the driver and creates an ecosystem based on open protocols and interoperability to avoid disproportionate cost to drivers and industry.

Incoming ChargeUp Europe President Chris Burghardt stated that: “We are a young Association but ChargeUp Europe has already come a long way in 8 months. We will continue building our Association and our sector, working with all stakeholders to place EVs and EV charging infrastructure at the heart of clean transport in the EU”.

Find out more about what ChargeUp Europe’s leaders want for EV charging infrastructure with this video from our members here.