The infrastructure betrays Romania again. Europe is switching to the electric car, we would switch, but we have nowhere to charge it

Europe is in full transition to green transport. But Romania is not ready for the electric car revolution. As in almost any field, infrastructure is the weak point. We have too few charging stations, instead we are good at plans. But, as always, these plans are not very realistic.

At the end of last year, Romania had 2,754 charging stations for electric cars, according to data from the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA). That means only 0.4% of the total number of over 630,000 stations in the European Union.

We are 11th in Europe, but all the other countries behind us are small. That sends us straight to last place if we relate the number of stations to the population – only 0.1 charging points per thousand inhabitants.

Although the number of charging stations in Romania increased last year by 66%, we are far from the European leaders: the Netherlands (144,453), France (119,255) and Germany (120,625).

These three states alone are home to two-thirds of all charging points in Europe, even though they have 22% of the EU’s area. For example, the Netherlands, the state with the best infrastructure, has more than 52 times more charging points than Romania, which has seven times the area.

Romania is not doing well either in terms of the ratio between electric cars and charging points. At the end of last year, 42,074 electric vehicles were registered in Romania, which means that a charging station serves, on average, 15.2 vehicles. If we also add the several tens of thousands of plug-in hybrid vehicles, the ratio increases even more. But according to the EU, the optimal ratio is ten electric vehicles to one public charger.

The authorities in Bucharest, however, have big plans. With the money from PNRR, Romania wants to increase the number of charging stations to 30,000 by mid-2026. Of these, 71% would be in urban areas, 19% in rural areas and 10% would be located on the road network and highways.

Information from official documents shows that, in addition to the charging points already in place, the national target consists of:

– 2,896 electric recharging points that will be built on the network of national roads and highways, according to the CNAIR strategy;

– 13,283 recharge points financed through the component The local fund from PNRR. Of these, 13,200 are high-power stations, which will be distributed in county residences (4,000), municipalities (1,876), cities (1,600) and communes (5,724);

-2,000 recharging points located in the urban environment with money from the component The Renovation Wave from the PNRR, of which 1,000 recharging points with high power and 1,000 with normal power;

– at least 10,000 other charging points financed from national sources, other EU funding (including Cohesion Policy) and private sources.

This means that, in two and a half years, 27,246 recharging stations must be installed in Romania, i.e. ten times more than those that are already in operation. Practically, every week 197 charging points should be installed. But it is an impossible task, given that last year only 21 stations were installed per week.

But the needs are even greater. An older ACEA report suggested that our country needs almost 60,000 charging points by 2030.

But not only Romania is experiencing difficulties in the transition to electric mobility, but all of Europe.

The latest report from the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers reveals an alarming gap between the current number of public charging points for electric cars and what would actually be needed to meet emission reduction targets.

This is despite the fact that sales of electric cars in the European Union grew three times faster than the installation of charging points between 2017 and 2023.

And to achieve Europe’s ambitious targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, mass adoption of electric cars is needed in all EU countries. But this will not happen without the widespread availability of public charging infrastructure across the region, says ACEA director general Sigrid de Vries.

The Association’s figures show that just over 150,000 public charging points were installed across the Union last year (an average of less than 3,000 per week), bringing the total to over 630,000.

According to the European Commission, 3.5 million charging points should be installed by 2030. Achieving this goal would mean installing about 410,000 public charging points per year (or nearly 8,000 per week), three times the rate of installation last year.

But ACEA estimates that 8.8 million charging points will actually be needed by 2030. Achieving this would require installing 1.2 million chargers per year (or over 22,000 per week), eight times more more than the 2023 figures.

The significant difference between the Commission’s and ACEA’s estimates is due to several factors. The industry shows that representatives of the European Commission underestimate the number of vehicles that will need access to charging stations by 2030. Their estimate is 30 million, compared to 65 million estimated by Strategy& and Fraunhofer ISI and used in ACEA calculations. The Association’s figures also include electric vans, which are charged using the same infrastructure as electric cars, as well as plug-in hybrid vehicles, while the Commission considers only electric cars.

In addition, in its calculations, the European Commission relied on a significantly lower consumption of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles than in everyday life.

But this whole transition is by no means cheap. An analysis of Mckinsey shows that, in the most conservative scenario, the value of investments in charging stations would amount to €40 billion by 2030. To this would be added another €41 billion for the modernization of electricity networks.