In the coming years, drivers should be able to find a charging station at least every 60 kilometers along the most important transport routes in the EU. As the EU Parliament announced on Tuesday night, according to the compromise negotiated by negotiators in the European Parliament and the EU states, hydrogen refueling facilities should also be created every 200 kilometers.

"The number of electric cars has increased seventeenfold since 2016, but the number of charging stations has only increased sixfold," said Ismail Ertug, the SPD MP responsible for the negotiations in the European Parliament. With the compromise, ambitious goals for the electric and hydrogen charging infrastructure have now been negotiated. Sweden's Infrastructure Minister Andreas Carlson emphasized that citizens no longer have to worry about finding charging points for their electric cars.

Legally Binding Goals

The CDU MP Jens Gieseke announced: "We now finally have clear and legally binding goals for the expansion of infrastructure throughout Europe." In justified cases, however, there may be exceptions. As a communication from the EU Parliament shows, this is intended for very remote regions, islands and roads with very little traffic.

According to the information, the expansion targets initially apply to the so-called TEN-T core network. These are the most important main thoroughfares in the EU. In Germany, this includes numerous motorways.

The new rules are based on a proposal by the EU Commission. The latter had presented the plans in summer 2021 as part of their "Fit for 55" climate package. This should reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. Parliament and EU states would still have to confirm the compromise.

Map of the TEN-T network Information from the Ministry of Transport on TEN-T Communication from the EU Parliament of 19.10.2022