ChargeUp Europe, the voice of the electric vehicles (EV) charging infrastructure industry, today issued an open call to EU leaders to come forward with a dedicated Regulation on EV charging infrastructure in Europe – separated out from existing rules on alternative fuels - or risk losing momentum in the fight against climate change.

Europe has seen multi-billion euro investments in electromobility in recent years and a rapid upsurge in electric vehicles purchases in 2020. However, a patchwork of national rules, lack of interoperability of technical requirements and incoherent policy planning models risk slowing down the roll out of EV infrastructure right at the moment it should be speeding up.

According to Christopher Burghardt, ChargeUp Europe President, “Investors need certainty, and drivers need to be able travel with confidence wherever they are in Europe. But a single market for investment in EV infrastructure simply doesn’t exist today. It is clear we need a stronger more coherent approach at EU level.”

Concretely, ChargeUp Europe is calling for standalone Regulation carved out from the upcoming review of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive (AFID) – which has been poorly implemented by Member States.  This Regulation should be at the core of a dedicated European governance regime for EV charging infrastructure, including complementary rules for charging under the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and a clear methodology for Member State roll-out plans and funding programmes that should be subject to oversight at the EU level. 

The EV charging industry is a new and quickly growing industry which sits at the intersection of the energy, digital, and automotive sectors. Setting up proper market rules and regulations for the industry requires looking at developments in all of these areas and being aware of the interplay between them, especially the connection with the electricity system. Therefore, a dedicated EV Charging Infrastructure Regulation, which takes this perspective, is needed.

“It makes little sense to bundle public EV charging infrastructure with other alternative fuels. Electromobility is no longer ‘alternative’ and EV charging is a fundamentally different fuelling model than the other segments covered by AFID. We need a dedicated approach to electromobility taking into account the specificities of our sector.” added Christopher Burghardt.