EU agreement on expansion targets for road transport

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

“The number of electric cars has increased seventeen-fold since 2016, but the number of charging stations has only increased six-fold,” he said European Parliament SPD MP Ismail Ertug responsible for the negotiations. 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.

Main thoroughfares of the EU

The CDU MP Jens Gieseke said: “We now finally have clear and legally binding goals for the expansion of infrastructure throughout Europe.” In justified cases, however, there can 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 autobahns.

The new rules are based on a proposal by the EU Commission. The latter presented the plans in the summer of 2021 as part of its “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.