The data provided by the ACEA and the EU Alternative Fuels Observatory on the status of the charging points that exist in the European Union continue to show profound differences between the Member States. Just check that Holland (66,665 or 30%), France (45,751 or 20.4%) and Germany (44,538 or 19.9%) have almost 70% of all the charging points in the European Union.
These three countries represent, in area, only 23% of the European Union. The case of the Netherlands is especially shocking, given that it is a very small country. Moving with an electric car through the country of the canals is much easier than in large countries -like ours- where the electrical infrastructure leaves much to be desired, comparatively.
It cannot be said that there is a correlation between the sales of electric cars with respect to the total number of passenger cars and the number of charging points. Germany, France and the Netherlands are above the average, 10% to 15% share. Moreover, it is the Swedes who are the most mix they have electric, almost a third of the market. Norway is not part of the EU, but of the free trade area with the EU (EFTA). The UK, de facto separated from the EU by ‘Brexit’, is also not counted.
The graph is interactive and you can examine the data simply by hovering over each country. You can see that the number of charging points changes sharply between the third and fourth country, which is Italy, with only 13,073 chargers. The Swedes, fifth in number, have 10,370 chargers at their disposal. In Spain there are 7,407 recharging points.
And if we look at the caboose, which are Cyprus, Malta, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Greece, they add up to 809 recharging points among all. However, let us bear in mind that the geographical scope of Cyprus and Malta is very small, it is normal that they have few charging points even if there are them in each corner.
Be careful, the data on the ACEA interactive graph is not synchronized in real time with the data handled by the European observatory, the latest data suggest that in Spain there are 3,196 charging points of 22 kW or more, and 6,667 semi-fast charging points and slow, 22 kW or less. If we look at the still photo, and not in real time, there is a lot to do at the European level, with special emphasis on the countries of the south and east.
