The European manufacturers’ association ACEA warns of an alarming gap between the required and existing number of public charging stations. Meanwhile, electric cars remain particularly popular in China.
The European automotive industry is warning of a growing gap between the number of public charging stations and new electric cars. Sales of electric cars in the EU grew three times faster than the number of newly installed charging stations between 2017 and 2023, the European manufacturers’ association ACEA said today. There is an alarming gap between the required number of public charging stations and the number that will exist in the future.
1.2 million new charging points needed per year?
Germany still performs relatively well compared to the EU. According to ACEA, almost two thirds of the charging stations available in the EU are concentrated in three countries: Germany, France and the Netherlands. According to this, there is a correlation between good charging infrastructure and the number of new electric cars sold. Germany, France, the Netherlands and Italy are each among the top five EU countries in terms of the number of new electric cars sold and the number of existing charging points.
According to ACEA, around 150,000 charging stations are currently being installed every year. According to estimates by the EU Commission, 440,000 per year are needed for there to be enough by 2030. The automotive industry even assumes that 1.2 million new charging points would be needed per year by 2030. The switch to increasing electromobility is intended to help the EU meet its climate goals.
Recently, however, the view of the European electric car market has been rather sobering. The growth of electric cars has slowed considerably: In February, new registrations of electric cars in the EU only rose by nine percent, and in March they only rose by 3.8 percent compared to the previous year. In January they had increased by 29 percent. In Germany in particular, the number of new registrations of electric cars has recently collapsed.
Electric cars remain in demand, especially in China
When it comes to the market share of newly registered electric cars, Germany was in the middle of Europe at the beginning of the year with 10.5 percent. The highest market shares of electric cars in January were registered in Denmark and Sweden at 35 percent and 29 percent. Electric cars continue to have a difficult time, especially in Eastern and Southern Europe: Italy and Croatia had the lowest market shares at two percent each.
According to a study, interest in electric cars is significantly greater in China. There, 80 percent of the drivers surveyed were in favor of purchasing a full-cycle car in the next five years, as the Mercedes-Benz financing subsidiary Mobility announced today based on a study by the market research institute Kantar.
This means the proportion is twice as high as in Germany and the USA. In the three countries together, a good half could imagine buying something soon. Drivers of relatively expensive cars are more open to electric cars than small car drivers, and younger people are more interested than older people. Across countries, more than a third are toying with plug-in hybrid cars.
E-motorcycles have a difficult time in Germany
Heavy motorcycles with electric drives have recently been less popular in Germany. “96 to 97 percent of motorcycles have an internal combustion engine,” said Matthias Meier, managing director of the Harley-Davidson factory in Frankfurt. According to evaluations by the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), there were 222,046 new registrations of motorcycles last year – of which only 16,945 were with electric drives.
Customers prefer to use smaller battery-operated two-wheelers. In the smallest class, which corresponds to mopeds with a displacement of up to 50 cubic centimeters, almost 30 percent of electric bikes are already sold, as the Motorcycle Industry Association of Germany (IVM) reports. The same applies to the A1 class with a displacement of up to 125 cubic centimeters, where more than ten percent of the newly registered two-wheelers in 2023 had an electric drive.
The range of electric motorcycles on offer is also manageable. BMW postponed the presentation of its electric model until 2026 at the earliest. The model was originally announced for 2025. There is “nowhere really relevant demand from customers for electric motorcycles anywhere,” said BMW spokesman Tim Diehl-Thiele. As long as there is no demand, the manufacturer wants to continue to concentrate on electric models for urban areas and for manageable distances.