Will there be another penalty from the EU? There is no one to build chargers for electricians. Millions spent do not pay off

finalizes the details of the AFIR (Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation), which is to accelerate the development of infrastructure for vehicles powered by alternative fuels. By 2025, Member States on trans-European roads will have to have a charging station with a total capacity of at least 400 kW every 60 km, including one point with a capacity of 150 kW. Failure to meet these requirements will mean penalties, “and Poland is extremely close to such a scenario” –

Chargers for electricians on highways are too expensive an investment for companies

Since the beginning of 2022, tenders have been carried out for 56 MOPs, but only 14 have been able to sign contracts. No bids were received for the remaining 52 places. Therefore, with the new expressways on MOPs, we will only use the toilet at most, but we will not recharge. And this is because it is not profitable for companies to put chargers there, due to the low traffic of electric cars. – Laying cables over a section of, for example, a dozen or so kilometers is an investment that consumes millions of zlotys, which has no chance of being repaid within ten years of land lease – says “Rz” Grigoriy Grigoriev, general director of Powerdot in Poland.

In addition, there are burdensome formalities related to connecting chargers to the power grid and the lack of extensive infrastructure at MOPs. – Powerdot’s investment strategy assumes building stations where drivers can charge the vehicle while doing other activities, such as shopping, a meal in a restaurant, dealing with official matters or sports activities. MOPs are not an attractive place for us to build stations, because there is no infrastructure on them that would allow drivers to use the time needed to charge the car – explains Grigoriev.

However, the situation loops, because the low availability of charging stations is the second most important factor that discourages people from buying. Only the question of price matters more.

GDDKiA will finance the construction of the charging station

We have 319 MOPs along expressways, but only 77 of them have electric chargers. “There are 81 charging stations in total, of which 59 were located at MOPs managed by . The remaining 22 stations operated on concession highways.” By the end of 2024, the General Directorate plans to install another 32 chargers.

GDDKiA wants to encourage private companies to build charging stations. The office is considering extension of the lease from 10 to 20 years. For now, companies can count on exemption from fees on income from alternative fuels. However, the problem concerns not only Poland, but all of Europe. Between 2016 and 2022, the number of electricians increased 17 times, while the number of chargers increased almost six times. In 2016, 77,000 chargers were serviced by 118.5 thousand. electric vehicles, in 2022 it was already 480,000. chargers for 2 million electricians.