A sprawling infrastructure is primarily necessary for commercial vehicles covering long distances. A sufficient number of publicly accessible chargers, with adequate speeds, is essential if we are to anticipate more intensive use of electric trucks in international transportation in the coming years.

Speed is a crucial characteristic. Fast chargers enable truck drivers to significantly recharge their vehicles during their legally defined 45-minute breaks and continue driving until the end of the daily driving limit, or until they reach their final destination.

In early 2023, Aral, a company overseeing several thousand petrol stations across Germany, opened the “first European corridor for charging electric trucks.” This involved installing six high-performance chargers at truck stops along a 600 km corridor of the Rhine-Alps, one of the busiest European logistics routes. It was announced then that thanks to the charging speed, it is possible to provide a recharge for about 200 kilometers of driving in those 45 minutes.

More charging stations planned across Europe from 2025 onwards.

Although there are increasingly common projects where vehicle manufacturers, petrol station owners, logistics companies, and even goods owners (factories, retail chains, etc.) work together to establish charging infrastructure, the comprehensive public network of EV chargers is an issue that governments and states will have to actively address in the near future.

At the end of last year, the European Union adopted new legislation aimed at providing greater capacity for public charging on city streets and along highways across the continent. The so-called Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) is considered one of the milestones of the EU’s “Fit for 55” policy, which will enable the transport sector to significantly reduce its carbon footprint.

“We are optimistic about the possibility of charging electric vehicles as easily in the near future as we currently do at traditional petrol stations,” said Raquel Sánchez Jiménez, the Spanish Minister of Transport, Mobility, and Urban Agenda.

The regulation sets out specific targets that must be met by 2025 and 2030. Among them are:

• From 2025 onwards, fast charging stations of at least 150 kW for cars and vans must be installed every 60 km along the main transport corridors of the EU (the so-called Trans-European Transport Networks – TEN-T).
• Starting from 2025, charging stations for heavy vehicles with a minimum power of 350 kW should be installed every 60 km along the TEN-T core network and every 100 km along the comprehensive TEN-T network (with complete coverage by 2030).
• Hydrogen refueling stations serving both cars and trucks must be deployed from 2030 in all urban nodes and every 200 km along the TEN-T core network.
• Seaports receiving a certain number of large passenger vessels or container ships must provide shore power for such vessels by 2030.
• Airports must provide stationary aircraft power at all exits by 2025 and at all remote stands by 2030.
• Users of electric vehicles or hydrogen vehicles must have easy payment options at charging points, using credit cards or contactless devices, without subscription and with full price transparency.

Electric Vans Popular in the Netherlands, Spain, France…

The use of electric vehicles in commercial transport is not only part of the European Green Plan, but also our present. Despite diesel still holding the top spot, data on new vehicle registrations in the European Union in 2023 show that the share of electric propulsion is clearly increasing.

This is most pronounced in the category of vans (up to 3.5 tons), where sales increased by 56.8% compared to the previous year, with a market share rising from 5.4% to 7.4% (diesel dropped from 85.7% in 2022 to 82.6% in 2023). The shift is primarily driven by growth in key European markets, led by the Netherlands, Spain, and France. Overall, in the European Union during 2023, just under 108,300 electric vans (battery or plug-in hybrids) were newly registered; in 2022, that number was less than 70,000, according to the latest report from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).

Despite the different picture for heavy-duty vehicles (where diesel holds a firm 95.7% market share), registrations of new electric trucks recorded an impressive growth of 234.1%, reaching 5,279 units. The main drivers of growth are the Netherlands and Germany, which together accounted for over 60% of total electric truck sales in the EU. Electric trucks now represent 1.5% of the market, a significant improvement from 0.8% the previous year.

If this number seems small to you, don’t forget that all leading European vehicle manufacturers predict that the future is electric and not just for the van sector. For example, IVECO, which launched a completely new line of e-vehicles at the end of 2023, forecasts that the share of electric trucks in the EU will be 5-10% by 2025, and then increase to 20-40% by 2030. In the LCV category, the forecasted growth is even faster, reaching 10-20% of the total number of registrations by 2025, and then 30-50% by 2030.

How the construction of the charging network will proceed and how it will be financed are questions we will soon get answers to. What is beyond doubt is that the intensive development of the charging network for electric vehicles is necessary for the decarbonization of transport to fully take hold.