In accordance with decisions of the European Parliament of October 2022, new AFIR regulations relating to the development of alternative fuel infrastructure will enter into force on 13 April. The regulation stipulates, among other things, the following: construction of fast charging stations for passenger cars and trucks, as well as hydrogen refueling stations along the most important transport corridors in the European Union.
Moreover, according to regulations, already in place in 2025 on the most important European roads (the so-called Trans-European Transport Network TEN-T), chargers with a power of at least 400 kilowatts must be present every 60 km maximum. Today, there are practically no such chargers in Poland.
You don't have to be an expert in the field of electric mobility to understand that this means a huge challenge for Poland. In fact, the AFIR regulation mandates that the total capacity of electric vehicle charging points in our country be increased by almost half. Furthermore, you have two years to implement this request. At the current pace of network construction in our country, this task may be simply unrealistic.
According to the Electric Mobility Counter, the number of fast chargers in Poland in 2023 increased by 28%, while in the first two months of 2024, only 16 additional charging points were installed compared to last year.
If Poland does not meet the targets imposed by the European Union within the specified deadline, it will be subject to heavy financial penalties.
At the end of last year, the General Directorate of National Roads and Highways organized a meeting with representatives of the most important institutions and companies concerned with electricity supply. During the conference, among other things, a proposal was made to deploy charging infrastructure for electric-powered passenger cars and trucks in accordance with AFIR requirements.
Ultimately, 166 new locations were included, of which 145 were passenger service areas. In the case of truck charging infrastructure, plans for 2025 assume charging stations at 29 locations, and by 2027 at 77 locations. The hydrogen refueling station infrastructure is scheduled to be operated at 34 new points.
Strict penalties to block the shipper. Even electric drivers will take a hit.
At the same time, experts emphasize that, taking into account the comprehensive plans for electric mobility, there will still be a shortage of chargers in our country. At the end of 2023, there were only 5,933 points available to the public in Poland. At the same time, there were 98,348 electric cars on our roads. About half of them are electric cars, and the rest are hybrid cars.
Although the number of battery-powered cars in Poland has been growing slowly in recent years, the development of the fast charger network has certainly not kept pace. This clearly shows the challenge facing Poland.
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