On Thursday 5 May, the EU Member States meeting in a working group analysed the latest version of the French Presidency of the EU Council’s (FPEU) compromise text on the deployment of alternative fuel infrastructure (AFIR) (see EUROPE 12936/28).
Several clarifications are made in this latest version concerning recharging points for electric vehicles. For example, for light-duty vehicles, the FPEU proposes that recharging stations should be located on the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) or within 2 kilometres of the nearest exit from a TEN-T road.
For heavy-duty vehicles, these recharging points should be on the TEN-T or within 3 kilometres of the nearest exit from a TEN-T road.
Finally, for hydrogen vehicles, recharging stations should be on the TEN-T or within 10 kilometres of the nearest exit from a TEN-T road.
In addition, the new version of the compromise text also proposes that Member States may submit a request to the European Commission for authorisation to apply less stringent minimum power requirements for recharging points on its network, should the Member State in question be able to demonstrate - based on the share of electric light-duty vehicles compared to the total fleet of light-duty vehicles registered in its territory - that the level of requirements as set out in the text has negative effects and discourages private investment.
In addition, the text also provides some clarifications on the refuelling of hydrogen vehicles. On this point, the text wants to push Member States to have a minimum number of “publicly accessible” refuelling stations by 31 December 2030 that are equipped with at least a 700 bars dispenser and are spaced no more than 200 km apart along the TEN-T.
See the compromise document: https://aeur.eu/f/1kn (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)