BRUSSELS / LONDON (Reuters) – EU plan to increase 50-fold increase in electric cars this decade to help cut greenhouse gas emissions requires 80 billion euro ($ 96.5 billion) investment in cost points to support it, energy industry group Eurelectric said Tuesday.
The European Union has said it will need 30 million or more zero-emission cars on its roads by 2030 as part of efforts to cut emissions by at least 55% in this decade compared to 1990 levels.
There were about 615,000 such vehicles at the block at the end of 2019, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
They are powered by less than 250,000 public electric vehicle tax points, which must rise to 3 million by 2030 to achieve the green goals, according to a report by Eurelectric – which represents national electric associations and major companies – and Ernst & Young (EY).
Expanding the infrastructure will cost 20 billion euros for public carriers and 60 billion euros for private ones, the report said.
That distribution is currently “significantly below target”, he said, in response to concerns raised by automotive industry groups.
The energy industry group said that by 2030 the EU will have 10.5 million electric vehicles in fleets operated by companies or public authorities. Europe’s 63 million vehicle fleets today include just 420,000 electric vehicles.
Cruel e-commerce among the coronavirus pandemic has given renewed impetus to the race to develop electric vans and trucks, with few models available today.
Eurelectric also called on the EU to impose mandatory requirements on motorists to sell zero-emission vehicles. The EU has used CO2 emission standards for cars to encourage the sale of electric vehicles in recent years, and later this year will propose tightening those standards to accelerate the transition to clean transport.
Reporting by Kate Abnett, Nick Carey; edited by John Stonestreet