ACEA Criticizes EU’s Electric Truck Charger Shortage

Greg Hyde

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18th January 2019

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has attacked the EU for maintaining a deficit of electric truck charging infrastructure.

The ACEA has published a report claiming the shortage of roadside chargers across the bloc will make the EU’s own CO2 emission reduction targets difficult to meet. It claims granting such chargers “widespread availability” is a “basic prerequisite for” the levels of adoption of electric trucks needed to meet the targets.

According to the report, at least 6,000 charging points offering over 500kW of direct charge as well as another 20,000 points offering lower power need to be rolled out across the EU’s motorways by 2030 to meet the targets but the bloc is neglecting to do this in favor of installing 350kW public chargers for passenger vehicles.

ACEA secretary-general Erik Jonnaert fumed: “There is not one single public charging point for long-haul trucks available today”. He added: “A standard for the required high-power plugs doesn’t exist yet … policymakers must be aware of this alarming situation when agreeing future CO2 targets for trucks, as these are dependent on a massive ramp-up in sales of alternatively-powered trucks … targets should be set accordingly – and must be accompanied by an action plan to roll out truck-specific infrastructure across the EU”.