13/04/2021

The objective of our audit was to determine the effectiveness of the Commission’s support for the deployment of an EU-wide publicly accessible infrastructure for charging electric vehicles.

We found that despite successes such as in promoting a common EU plug standard, and improving access to different charging networks, obstacles to travel across the EU in electric vehicles remain. The availability of charging stations varies between countries, payment systems are not harmonised with minimum requirements and there is inadequate information for users. In the absence of a comprehensive infrastructure gap analysis, the Commission has been unable to ensure that EU funding goes where it is most needed. The EU is still a long way off its Green Deal target of 1 million charging points by 2025, and it lacks an overall strategic roadmap for electro-mobility.

We made a number of recommendations to the European Commission to help improve the deployment of publicly accessible charging infrastructure across the EU.

ECA special report pursuant to Article 287(4), second subparagraph, TFEU.