THE Commission welcomes the political agreement reached between them European Parliament and his Council on increasing the number of publicly accessible electric recharging and hydrogen refueling stations in particular on all major transport corridors and hubs of the European Union. This is a landmark agreement that will facilitate the transition to zero-emission transport and contribute to our goal of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030.

The new Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Development Regulation (AFIR Regulation) sets mandatory development targets for electric recharging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure for the road sector, land-based electricity supply to seaports and inland ports, and power supply to parked aircraft. By making at least a minimum number of recharging and refueling infrastructure available across the EU, the regulation will put an end to consumer concerns about the difficulty of recharging or refueling a vehicle. The AFIR Regulation also paves the way for a user-friendly recharge and top-up experience, with full price transparency, common minimum payment methods and consistent customer information across the EU.

Infrastructure for road, sea and air transport

The rules of the new AFIR Regulation will ensure adequate and user-friendly alternative fuel infrastructure for road, sea and air transport. This will enable the use of zero-emission road vehicles, in particular electric and hydrogen-powered light and heavy commercial vehicles, as well as the supply of electricity to docked ships and parked aircraft. Specifically, the following main infrastructure development goals should be achieved by 2025 or 2030:

1) Recharging infrastructure for cars and semi-trucks must be developed at a pace corresponding to vehicle absorption. To this end, for each registered battery electric car in a given Member State, 1.3 kW of output power must be provided by publicly accessible recharging infrastructure. In addition, every 60 km along the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), fast recharging stations with a power of at least 150 kW must be installed from 2025 onwards.

2) Recharging stations intended for heavy commercial vehicles with a minimum output power of 350 kW must be installed every 60 km along the TEN-T Core Network and every 100 km along the TEN-T Extended Network from 2025 onwards, while full network coverage must be achieved by 2030. In addition, recharging stations must be installed in safe and protected parking areas, for overnight recharging, as well as in urban hubs for delivery vehicles.

3) Hydrogen refueling infrastructures that can serve both cars and trucks should be installed from 2030 onwards in all urban hubs and every 200 km along the TEN-T core network, ensuring a dense enough network to allow for hydrogen-powered vehicles to circulate throughout the EU.

4) Seaports with at least 50 berths of large passenger ships, or 100 berths of container ships, must provide shore-side electrification for these ships by 2030. This will not only reduce the carbon footprint of maritime transport, but local air pollution in port areas will also be significantly reduced.

5) Airports must provide electricity to parked aircraft at all touchpoints (gates) by 2025 and at all remote locations (external parking bays) by 2030.

6) Operators of electric recharging and hydrogen refueling stations must ensure full price transparency, offer a common ad hoc payment method, such as debit or credit cards, and make relevant data, such as location, available by electronic means, thus ensuring that the customer is fully informed.

Next steps

The political agreement reached this week must now be formally approved. Once the European Parliament and the Council have completed this process, the new rules will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will enter into force after a transition period of 6 months.

Record

The European Green Deal is the EU’s long-term development strategy to become climate neutral by 2050. To achieve this goal, the EU must reduce its emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to levels of 1990. The agreement reached this week is another important step towards the adoption of the Commission’s ‘Fit for 55’ package of legislative measures, aimed at implementing the European Green Deal. It follows other recent agreements, the most recent of which is on sustainable fuels for shipping.

George Fellidis