EU passes law requiring EV fast chargers along all main transport corridors by 2025

The Council of the European Union (EU) has adopted a new law surrounding EV charging infrastructure it’s calling a “milestone” in reducing carbon emissions throughout the European transport sector. Beginning in 2025, fast charging stations will need to be present every 60 km along the “trans-European transport (TEN-T) network.”

Today’s news is the latest chapter in the EU Council’s “Fit for 55” package agreed upon in June 2022, before EU Parliament and its Council reached a provision deal on the proposal this past March.

The goal of the package is to significantly reduce the carbon footprint in the transport sector, consisting of passenger cars, vans, and heavy-duty vehicles currently plagued by fossil fuel emissions.

The extensive package calls upon the EU to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and achieve climate neutrality in 2050. The package currently includes regulations to promote electrification in cars and alternative fuels in aviation and maritime segments, all while bolstering any and all infrastructure to alleviate range anxiety for those citizens it urges to go electric.

Today, the EU Council announced a new law has been adopted that should significantly increase the number of public EV fast chargers along all major corridors.

EU’s new charger law is ambitious but admirable

The EU Council shared regulatory terms of its latest EV charger law, which calls for hardened infrastructure across all transport segments on the continent. The official passage comes weeks after we first covered some terms of the proposed law, which have changed slightly over the past few weeks. EU Council member and Spanish minister of transport, mobility and urban agenda, Raquel Sánchez Jiménez spoke to the new EV charger law:

The new law is a milestone of our ‘Fit for 55’ policy providing for more public recharging capacity on the streets in cities and along the motorways across Europe. We are optimistic that in the near future, citizens will be able to charge their electric cars as easily as they do today in traditional petrol stations.

Here’s how the infrastructural deployment targets are laid out according to the regulation announced today:

• From 2025 onward, EV fast charging stations of at least 150kW for cars and vans must be installed every 60 km (37 miles) along the EU’s main transport corridors “(TEN-T) network.”
• Charging stations for heavy-duty EVs with a minimum output of 350kW must be deployed every 60 km along the TEN-T core network, and every 100 km (62 miles) on the larger TEN-T network from 2025 onward.
  • This must be followed by complete network coverage by 2030.
• Hydrogen refueling stations serving cars and trucks must be deployed in all urban areas and every 200 km along the TEN-T core network from 2030 onward.
• Maritime ports welcoming a minimum number of large passenger vessels, or container vessels, must provide them with shore-side electricity by 2030.
• Airports must provide electricity to stationary aircraft at all gates by 2025, and at all remote stands by 2030.
• Drivers of electric or hydrogen-fueled vehicles must be able to pay easily at recharging or refueling points with payment cards or contactless devices and without a need for a subscription.
  • Charging transactions must include full price transparency.
• Recharging or refueling station operators must provide consumers full information through electronic means on the availability, waiting time, or price at different stations.

The EU Council shared that now its latest law has been adopted, the EV charger regulations will be published in the EU’s next official journal after summer and enter into force 20 days after publication. Six months after that, the new rules will apply in the EU.