Experts at the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) say that EU countries will need to add 8 times more charging points every year until 2030 to achieve their CO2 reduction goals. These charging locations need to be installed in order to meet increasing demand from drivers who buy battery-electric cars, which run exclusively on batteries, as well as plug-in hybrid models.

Furthermore, there are the commercial vehicles, which are getting electrified themselves and will probably share some of the public charging stations with personal cars. Still, this class of vehicles will most likely have its own private set of charging stations that it will use to avoid congestion and delays in charge times and deliveries.

"Europe's charging network developed significantly, especially in the past 4-5 years. Two main challenges stuck around, namely the differences in coverage and the accessibility between the countries and regions, coupled with the fact that the network didn't keep up with the growing number of cars", said Iulia Dorobanțu, cofounder Charger.ro.

The reality that overturned the charging network

The reality from the statistics shows that the charging infrastructure didn't keep up with the increase in the number of EVs. The same ACEA claims that between 2017 and 2023, the number of EVs grew 18 times, whereas the number of charging points only by 6 times. This means that for every charging point added (which means one connector, not one station with multiple connectors), 3 EVs reached the road or in other words, 3 battery-powered cars had to share one charger.

Regarding these findings, ACEA’s Director General, Sigrid de Vries said that "we are very concerned that infrastructure rollout has not kept pace with battery-electric car sales in recent years. What is more, this ‘infrastructure gap’ risks widening in the future – to a much greater extent than European Commission estimates."

According to Charger's own studies, the European public charging network can cover only 7% of the region's number of BEVs and plug-in hybrid.

In 2023 alone there were 150.000 charging points installed across the EU, raising the total to some 630.000. We are only talking about public charging points here, so those that can be accessed by everyone who owns an EV, so companies that might have installed their own micro-network that is accessible only by the employees don't count.

The same experts at ACEA say that the European Commission envisions the implementation of 3.5 million charging points across the region by 2030, meaning 410.000 per year and 8.000 per week, nearly three times what is currently being done. But even these estimates are still below what would be considered by experts an ideal situation.

ACEA suggests that, for a wide-adoption of EVs in Europe, we will need around 8.8 million public charging points in the region, meaning that companies will have to accelerate the installation rate dramatically to 1.2 million units per year.

Even with the current number of companies and startups that specialize in deploying EV charging infrastructure, which is increasing, this will take a great amount of effort and doesn't take into account the charging speed or the power requirements for all those stations. Given that most fast-charging stations output between 50 and 350 kW of power, the energy requirements to fill all the EVs projected on the road, especially at once, is going to challenge the energy grid of all countries.

The Nordic countries, as well as those in Western Europe, such as France, the UK and Germany, have good charging networks with fast-charging stations that can enable long-distance driving in comfortable time-frames.

"In Eastern Europe, the charging network is not as well-developed, but investments and development plans are expanding. The main challenges for the region are the number of available stations, charging speeds and the interoperability between the different owners of charging points", Iulia added.

One solution to this problem could be localizing the production of energy, via solar panels and energy storage systems, for example, but this drives up the cost and requires more land and maintenance for the stations themselves. This gets further amplified if the charging stations are made of multiple fast-charging points, which means that large solar parks will be required to provide the power. Theoretically, the currently-developing micro-nuclear reactors could help, because they don't take up too much space and are able to continuously produce large amounts of power, but let's not digress.

To put things into perspective, for a 500kW solar power system, charging infrastructure deployers need to account for around 3.000 square meters of space to install the panels themselves, which can vary depending on the efficiency and positioning of the park itself.

For highways or national roads, which usually boast plenty of unused space on the side of the road, this could be a non-issue, as the added charging stations could also mean more resting points for the drivers. But take into account more secluded roads with scenic views, such as a mountain road, and that's where the problems start to arise.

Some of the main reasons why the charging network couldn't keep up with the number of battery-powered cars are the unpredictable increase in the adoption of EVs, as well as the high costs associated with deploying charging stations and the regulations that make slow the process down. Additionally, we have to take into account the power infrastructure itself, which wasn't developed to account for the charging of EVs, which can easily overload the network if multiple cars are plugged in to fast chargers.

Navigating the charging network

As if there wasn't enough confusion around charging stations and the lacking infrastructure, get ready for more, because the problems don't stop. Another big issue is finding the stations in the first place. Why is this tricky? Because pretty much every charging station deployer and operator has its own proprietary map, meaning that although there are open sources where you can find the charging stations, such as Google Maps or Charge Finder, there are some charging points that you will be missing, at least until they are marked properly.

I know for a fact that there are many EVs that point out the available charging stations across a route that you might be taking, such as Tesla or even Renault models that pack Google's infotainment systems. If you introduce your destination on the car's integrated GPS, it will estimate how much battery you'll have by the time you reach it and can even point top-up points along the way, if they're needed or simply if you want to use them.

Using Charge Finder, I discovered that alongside Romania's A2 motorway, which is one of the country's most important routes, especially during the summer, as it connects Bucharest to Constanta, there is only one charging point, right as you exit the capital city. That's it. When coming back from Constanta, you have to make sure there's plenty left in the batteries and drive a bit slower, to avoid any unpleasant experiences.

Now, is it really that there are almost no chargers alongside A2? I don't know, because I haven't stopped at every gas station or resting point to check, but if you're driving there, I don't think it's feasible to stop at every point to do so. If the charger isn't displayed on the map, it's as if it doesn't exist in the first place.

While we're in Romania, let's see how Tesla expanded its charging network in the country. Exploring the company's website, which is quite helpful, we discovered that there are several charging locations supporting Tesla Superchargers, which are some of the fastest that you can use, especially if your EV is capable of speeds of at least 150kW.

Bucharest, Constanta, Craiova, Timisoara, Sibiu, Pitesti and Cluj-Napoca are some of the cities that already have several Superchargers that all EV drivers can use and apparently, Iasi and Bacau are next in line to get the fast-charging treatment.

The good news with Tesla's charging stations is not only that they're fast, but there are many charging points available, so in most of Romania, each Tesla parking location has at least six connectors available and up to 14 in Bucharest. They are, however, CCS only.

While we're on the subject, let's bring some good news to this discussion. In Europe, there are two main charging connectors, Type 2 for slower top-ups of up to 22kW and CCS (combined charging system), which can deliver at least 50kW and up to 350kW.

How difficult is it to pay in the charging network

Back to the issues, here's another. You would think that paying for the charging should be straightforward, right? A POS terminal is attached to the charging station and boom, you're done. But no, not yet, at least. The EU currently explores how to simplify payments at charging stations, streamlining the process to make it similar to paying for gas. Currently, if you want to pay for a charging session, you need at least one account to the specific charging operator that you chose for the session.

That can be a supermarket, a gas station or a charging station operator. There are many on the market, as you can expect, so you need many applications and just as many accounts to be able to just pay for the electricity that you used. Some will allow you to pay as a guest, without creating an account, but there might be some inconveniences, such as slow refunds for the remaining cash.

That's right, because some operators will go as far as to pull a certain amount from your card before you begin your charging session. Let's say that you want to charge your electric car with 15 euros worth of electricity. Well tough luck, because the operator could charge you 30 euros up front. After you stop the charging session and ended up using 15 euros worth of power, the rest of the money will be delivered back into your banking deposit. That might take from hours to days at a time, depending on the operator and whether or not you use an account.

You can imagine how this can get annoying very quickly, especially on a longer trip. Installing a POS terminal on a charging station shouldn't be too complicated and that's what the EU thinks, as well, since it mandated that all charging stations need to be retrofitted with terminals that support contactless payments. Moreover, for main transport corridors, charging points must be installed at most 60 kilometers away from one another to make journey planning easier for all drivers.

These are all measures that will contribute to a simpler, more integrated clean transport system across the region and as the range and efficiency will continue to get better, owning an EV will be less of a hassle for potential buyers.

Where is Romania in Europe's charging network

There are two things to take into account here, namely Romania's own charging infrastructure and how the country is connected to the neighboring countries. According to Charger.ro, one of the most active companies in the EV charging infrastructure deployment in Romania, there were around 1.500-2.000 public charging stations in Romania and most of them were located in and around the large urban centers, such as Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara. As it is expected and as it is the case for other European countries, less frequented roads and smaller villages or towns lack charging infrastructure entirely.

MOL Group, one of Europe's most important oil and gas companies, supports Romania's transition to the electric mobility, having installed charging points across 41 of its gas stations in the country, which can charge up to 96 EVs at the same time. So, 96 charging points in total for drivers roaming Romania's roads. OMV Petrom is another big oil company that invests massively in the country and region's EV network, having installed 150 charging points in its gas stations by June 2023.

When talking about how well Romania is connected to Europe's charging network, MOL Group contributes to the continent's charging infrastructure with its own network of chargers. Thus, it deployed over 400 charging points across Europe's most important routes. Additionally, in the coming months, the company will implement additional fast-charging stations that can be updated to work with speeds of up to 320 kW across six points on Hungarian and Slovenian highways.

Overall, according to Charger, Romania has a well-developed charging network compared to neighboring states, but it lacks compared to Western European states.

"I'm not entirely certain that Romania can fully electrify all the cars roaming its streets, as I believe the technology will go through all sorts of changes. But I do believe that Romania can get ready to support a large number of EVs, through implementing a mixed charging infrastructure of public and private stations and through a proper education for EV drivers regarding charging habits", explains Iulia Dorobanțu.

She also believes that, since we are at the very beginning of the road with the development of the charging infrastructure, we still have the opportunity to do things right, planning the network according to the needs of every area.

Charger.ro contributes to the development of Romania's charging infrastructure by working together with companies, as well as private customers, offering an integrated solution, installation services, as well as assistance on demand. Real estate companies, logistics experts and hospitality are some of the industries that so far implemented solutions from Charger.ro. In just 18 months since launching the company, the team deployed over 350 charging points.

The company also contributes to the communication aspect that is important in the mission of increasing the adoption of EVs and forming the right charging habits for drivers.