EV Market Report Europe

How big is the European EV charging market?

In this overview of the European EV Charging market, we compare relevant market data such as the number of EVs and current car charging infrastructure from European countries where ChargePlanner is currently available. The data in this report comes from a collection of sources that ChargePlanner curates and integrates in its platform.

To dive deeper into the market situation of individual countries mentioned in this analysis, please look at our EV market reports page with freely available in-depth market reports per country.

The table below gives a top-level overview of each of the European markets we analyzed.

The EV growth wave is moving from the North-West to the South-East of Europe

There's a growing number of EVs in all European countries, but the most developed countries lie in North-West Europe. The other countries in Europe fall further behind, the farther they are situated in the South-East.

Scandinavian countries lead the charge with the Netherlands only slightly behind, as tracked by AFIR. Germany and France do slightly worse with a slightly above average penetration.

However, Southern countries lag behind with only Portugal being the positive exception, especially when we compare them with neighbouring country Spain.

The usage per EV charging point in Poland and Spain is lower than in any other country

There is already a decent number of EV chargers installed in Poland and Spain. Too much, compared to the current EVs on the road as it’s causing a low usage per charging point compared to other countries with more EVs on the road. Despite large growth expected in the next 5 years due to the countries’ target numbers, Poland and Spain are currently suffering from an oversupply.

However, Spain can expect an influx of EVs in the form of tourism from other European countries, while Poland from electric high duty vehicles (e-HDV). The e-HDVs will most likely charge partially on car chargers, especially in its early days.

Which countries and regions lack ultrafast EV chargers?

Looking at the mix of slow, fast, and ultrafast chargers, we see around three times less ultrafast than fast chargers for electric vehicles in Spain, Portugal and Poland. In countries with a stronger EV adoption, we usually see more ultrafast chargers than fast chargers. In general this is because ultrafast chargers are more popular than fast chargers and have the highest utilization per charging point in all countries in our data.

The low amount of ultrafast chargers in Poland and Iberia, however, is due to an electric grid with capacity challenges. In general, multiple countries face challenges when it comes to installing charging points to the grid. The most common issues are high installation costs, insufficient capacity for high power chargers or slow approval processes.

As ultrafast chargers are very popular with EV drivers, it could hinder the future EV adoption in these countries. So better grid solutions or smart charging solutions should be found in the coming years.

In every country, the AC Charging points are represented most in the mix, with the Netherlands and Belgium leading in this aspect. In both countries, over 90% of all charging points are AC chargers. The Netherlands also leads with the most (193.8 K) AC Charging points of any country in the analysis, but this reliance on AC also reflects a deeper issue rooted in its electric grid.

	Total Capacity	Charging Points	Ultrafast Charging Points	Avg. Power Ultrafast (kW)	Fast Charging Points	Avg. Power Fast (kW)	Slow Charging Points	Avg. Power Slow (kW)	Price/kW Ultrafast (€)	Price/kW Slow (€)
EnBW	955 MW	10.428	6.47	206	617	50	3.341	24	0,73	0,59
Tesla Supercharger	472 MW	3.211	3.211	245
Aral Pulse	447 MW	3.343	2.386	252	948	100	9	22	0,66
IONITY	218 MW	1.089	1.089	340					0,58
Shell Recharge	217 MW	2.509	1.286	261	48	120	1.175	6	0,66
EWE Go	212 MW	2.689	1.493	205	167	58	1.029	22	0,44	0,44
Allego	182 MW	2.055	1.284	188	356	55	415	28	0,61	0,49
ChargePoint	167 MW	8.907	414	202	194	58	8.299	22	0,63	0,48
Pfalzwerke	149 MW	1.883	993	216	206	54	684	20
no operator name	136 MW	6.528	379	235	335	63	5.814	20
Compleo	120 MW	7.864	133	258	107	72	7.624	21
Citywatt GmbH	94 MW	1.116	478	289	27	52	611	22	0,79	0,54
E.ON Drive	75 MW	3.197	270	208	507	56	2.42	18	0,60	0,49
Mer Germany	72 MW	1.777	329	217	280	56	1.168	23
Volkswagen Group	70 MW	5.6	106	198	176	53	5.318	17		0,70
reev	61 MW	4.309	28	239	90	56	4.191	21
TEAG Mobil	58 MW	874.0	410	195	55	55	409	23	0,66	0,51
ALDI SÜD	55 MW	1.612	373	150	210	58	1.029	23	0,33	0,24
Comfortcharge	48 MW	1.195	422	152	156	53	617	12
Lidl	46 MW	1.856	10	350	986	54	860	23
Fastned	45 MW	255.0	231	311	24	50			0,58
Vattenfall InCharge	44 MW	1.322	268	194	35	92	1.019	14
EDEKA	40 MW	1.923	46	150	679	54	1.198	21
Hamburger Energiewerke Mobil	39 MW	2.039	145	155	29	50	1.865	22	0,60	0,42
GP Joule Connect GmbH	37 MW	786.0	173	268	51	79	562	20	0,76	0,56
Porsche	37 MW	220.0	171	351			49	21
MENNEKES	31 MW	2.403					2.403	22		0,37
Wirelane	31 MW	2.847			11	50	2.836	19
JOLT Energy	30 MW	162.0	162	314					0,40
MVV Energie	30 MW	880.0	117	264	56	50	707	21
Kaufland	30 MW	1.13	8	217	726	54	396	23	0,46	0,40
ChargeIT mobility	30 MW	1.663	61	191	79	63	1.523	22
Energie Südbayern (ESB)	29 MW	1.082	108	183	69	55	905	22
TankE	28 MW	1.702	30	196	106	73	1.566	22
TotalEnergies	26 MW	1.616	21	169	164	60	1.431	20	0,61	0,53
Other brands	1329 MW	71.479	3.321	210	2.94	58	65.218	21	0,64	0,54
Grand total	5688 MW	163.551	26.426	210	10.434	58	126.691	21	0,64	0,54

Big public charging pricing differences between European countries

The pricing policies of EV charging in Europe varies greatly, influenced by local energy production and market conditions.

On the one hand we see that France and Poland are cheap with ultrafast charging prices between 42 and 55 cents per KWh. This is thanks to the large production capacity of cheaper electricity.

On the other hand, countries such as Luxembourg, Italy, The Netherlands and Germany have the highest prices with prices between 62 and 67 cents per KWh. In these countries high prices might also endanger further adoption of EVs in the coming years.

The Netherlands suffer from large electricity grid congestion problems

Not only Poland and Iberia, but also the Netherlands have grid congestion problems. In the Netherlands, where EV adoption is already relatively high, the situation is becoming worrisome. Congestion on the grid has not only resulted in a limited number of both ultrafast and fast chargers. This congestion is not surprising as the Dutch have the most power consuming EV fleet of the entire analysis and because the high-voltage infrastructure in the country was less prepared for the rapid growing grid demand than in other countries.

However, every problem brings opportunities and a lot of initiatives are taking place in the Netherlands to find solutions:

Dynamic prices for electricity
Smart charging solutions
Local energy supply with micro grids

The outcome of all these ongoing experiments and innovation initiatives in the Netherlands will be interesting to follow in the coming years.