The age of the combustion engine is coming to an end. Electromobility is becoming established all over the world. To support the expansion of e-mobility, an equal growth of publicly accessible charging infrastructure is necessary. The EU and its member states are paving the way. Besides public charging points, private charging points also have a vast potential and need for expansion. On the strong German market alone, there is the risk of a gap of around 600,000 charging points for multi-family dwelling arising by 2030. Power2Drive Europe, the international exhibition for charging infrastructure and e-mobility, will be offering a comprehensive look at the present and future of both public and private charging infrastructure. Power2Drive Europe is part of The smarter E Europe and will take place from June 19–21, 2024, at Messe München.
The number of public charging points is growing fast. Their number has more than doubled between 2021 and 2023 in the European Union. According to an evaluation by the European Alternative Fuels Observatory (EAFO), 2023 alone saw a 41 percent increase in deployment over the previous year. Belgium, in particular, experienced a dynamic growth of 89 percent between 2022 and 2023. This has put the country on the fast lane, overtaking the Scandinavian countries and Italy, to number four in the European ranking. Many Eastern and Southeastern European countries still have room for improvement, though.
The best charging infrastructure by far can be found in the Netherlands: With around 144,000 public charging points (27 percent more than in the previous year), the Dutch have overtaken Germany, which has just over 120,000 public charging points, even though it has five times the number of inhabitants and is eight times the size of its neighbor. In terms of inhabitant-to-car ratio, the Netherlands and Germany are quite even: In 2023, the Netherlands had around 113,000 new registrations, Germany around 524,000 new registrations of e-cars.
The European Union is experiencing a dynamic market ramp-up of battery electric vehicles. The number of new electric cars in 2023 was over 1.5 million, which is three times the number of 2020, six times the number of 2019, and ten times the number of 2018. This boom is set to continue. Any regional differences can be matched to the differences in terms of charging infrastructure. While the largest share of new battery electric vehicle registrations was highest in Northern Europe (Denmark 31.24 percent, Sweden 28.43 percent, Finland 22.95 percent) some other member states reported low one-digit figures.
Experience the future of charging infrastructure and e-mobility first-hand: Visitors to Power2Drive Europe can look forward to encountering a wide range of products, solutions and business models. The booths and exhibits in the halls will be complemented by many presentations. The Power2Drive Forum will showcase practical information on the installation of charging stations and planning of charging parks. Furthermore, leading industry experts and companies will examine innovative approaches and discuss challenges in the creation of future charging infrastructure. Topics focus on the implementation of payment systems, the development of high-quality charging infrastructure and the use of solar energy to charge vehicles.
One day before the start of the exhibition, on June 18, 2024, the Power2Drive Europe Conference will provide a global market overview for electromobility and charging infrastructure, including a look into the future. Session partners of the conference include the Charging Interface Initiative (CharIn e.V.), the Dutch knowledge and innovation center for smart charging infrastructure, ElaadNL, the ISEA Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives at the RWTH Aachen University, SBD Automotive’s specialists for integrated and autonomous driving, and the European Association for Electromobility AVERE.
Power2Drive Europe and the parallel events Intersolar Europe, ees Europe and EM-Power Europe will take place from June 19–21, 2024 as part of the innovation hub The smarter E Europe, Europe’s largest alliance of exhibitions for the energy industry, at Messe München.