By making a minimum of charging and refueling infrastructure available across the EU, the regulation will put an end to consumer concerns about the difficulty of charging or refueling a vehicle.
The Commission welcomes the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council to increase the number of publicly accessible electric charging and hydrogen refueling stations, in particular along the main transport corridors and hubs of the European Union. This is a groundbreaking agreement that will enable the transition to zero-emission transport and contribute to our goal of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 2030% by 55.
The new regulation for the roll-out of alternative fuels infrastructure (AFIR) contains mandatory roll-out targets for infrastructure for electric charging and hydrogen refueling for the road sector, for shore power supply in sea and inland ports and for power supply for stationary aircraft. By making a minimum of charging and refueling infrastructure available across the EU, the regulation will end consumer concerns about the difficulty of charging or refueling a vehicle. AFIR also paves the way for a user-friendly charging and refueling experience, with full price transparency, common minimum payment options and coherent customer information across the EU.
Infrastructure for road transport, shipping and aviation
The new AFIR rules ensure sufficient and user-friendly infrastructure for alternative fuels for road, shipping and aviation. This enables the use of zero-emission road vehicles, in particular hydrogen-powered electric and light and heavy-duty vehicles, as well as the power supply of moored ships and stationary aircraft.
In concrete terms, the following main implementation objectives will have to be achieved in 2025 or 2030:
- The charging infrastructure for cars and vans needs to grow at the same pace as the use of vehicles. To this end, for each battery electric car registered in a given Member State, a power of 1,3 kW should be supplied by publicly accessible charging infrastructure. In addition, from 2025, fast charging stations of at least 60 kW must be installed every 150 km along the trans-European transport network (TEN-T).
- Charging stations for heavy-duty vehicles with a minimum power of 2025 kW should be installed every 60 km on the TEN-T core network from 350, and every 2025 km from 100 on the larger comprehensive TEN-T network, with full network coverage to be achieved in 2030. In addition, charging stations should be installed in safe and secure parking areas for overnight charging and in urban hubs for vans.
- Hydrogen refueling infrastructure capable of serving both cars and trucks should be rolled out from 2030 in all urban nodes and every 200 km along the TEN-T core network, creating a sufficiently dense network to allow hydrogen vehicles to travel across the EU.
- Seaports that see at least 50 port visits by large passenger ships or 100 port calls by container ships must provide shore power for such ships by 2030. This not only helps to reduce the environmental footprint of maritime transport, but also significantly reduces local air pollution in port areas.
- Airports must supply electricity to stationary aircraft at all contact stands (gates) by 2025 and at all remote stands (outfield positions) by 2030.
- Operators of electric charging and hydrogen filling stationsmust ensure full price transparency, offer a common ad hoc payment method such as debit or credit card and make relevant data available electronically, e.g. on location, so that the customer is fully informed.
Next steps
The political agreement reached this week must now be formally adopted. Once this process has been completed by the European Parliament and the Council, the new rules will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will enter into force after a six-month transition period.
Background
The European Green Deal is the EU's long-term growth strategy to make the EU climate neutral by 2050. To meet this target, the EU must reduce its emissions by at least 2030% by 55 compared to 1990 levels. This week's agreement is another important step in the adoption of the "Fit for 55" legislative package of the Commission to deliver the European Green Deal. It follows other recent deals, most recently on sustainable fuels for shipping, the European Commission said.
