Five years ahead of the 2030 deadline, European car drivers have fewer than one million publicly accessible charging points at their disposal. In the EU-27, it is around 910,000 — only about a quarter of the European Commission’s target of 3.5 million charging points. This is the result of an analysis by the automotive parts specialist Motointegrator.de with the data study DataPulse Research. With the current expansion of around 150,000 charging points per year, the total would reach only about 1.7 million by 2030. To close the current gap, more than 500,000 new charging points would need to be installed annually. The problem in practice is not only the quantity, but also the distribution and the charging speed. Key findings:
- Sluggish progress: Only 26.1% of the 3.5 million target set by the European Commission has been reached.
- Retailers outpace countries: Lidl has more charging points (8,855) than Ireland or Romania.
- Slow charging: Less than 10% of charging points enable High Power Charging (>150 kW).
- Regional differences: Especially large gaps exist in Northern Scandinavia, Central Germany, inland Spain, and Southern Poland.
Charging deserts in Europe
The study shows clear gaps in Europe’s charging network. While cities are usually well supplied, there are often only a few charging points in between. In regions marked in dark red, the distance to the next charging point is more than 40 km. Supply gaps are even more pronounced in Northern Scandinavia and Central Germany, supplemented by rural regions of France, the interior of Spain, the Alpine regions, secondary roads in the Baltic region, and on islands.