Most charging still happens at home or work, with the number of private chargers being ten times higher than that of public ones.
However, the more electric vehicles roaming the roads, the more public charge points are needed to support the wide EV uptake, especially in dense areas where access to home charging is more limited.
From 2022 to 2024, the number of public charge points doubled globally to over 5 million. Two-thirds of the growth since 2020 happened in China, with a current ratio of one public charge point per 10 EVs.
The United States increased the number of public charge points by 20% to almost 200,000.
The number of fast and ultra-fast chargers also grew. In 2024, the global stock of fast chargers (22 kW-150 kW) reached 2 million, and ultra-fast chargers (> 150 kW) grew by over 50%.
According to the IEA, public charging infrastructure needs to grow ninefold globally by 2030 to support projected EV sales under current policies.
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and smart charging are becoming real options to help balance the demand, with active pilots in Australia, China, the UK, and elsewhere. Leading automakers collaborate on standards to enable EVs to become flexible grid resources.
How about Europe?
Europe leads on coverage, with fast chargers every 50 km on over 75% of highways. Europe’s public charging infrastructure exceeded the mark of 1 million charge points in 2024, which corresponds to a growth of 35%.
Within the EU, 11 out of 27 countries recorded an increase of more than 50%. The Netherlands is in the lead with 180,000 public charging points, followed by Germany (160,000) and France (155,000).
Source: Global EV Outlook 2025
The ratio of EVs per public charger in Europe is 13:1, a decrease of almost 10% from 2023.
The expansion of the fast and ultra-fast charging infrastructure in Europe also accelerated significantly. Ultra-fast chargers (150 kW+) grew 50% to 71.000 chargers and now make up nearly 10% of all public fast chargers.
About 20% of ultra-fast chargers in the EU already offer charging capacities of 350 kW and more, even though only a few vehicles can fully use this power.
European initiatives such as the AFIR Regulation, which sets requirements for coverage on major European roads, and the EU Building Directive, ensure that the European public charging network continues to grow and EV drivers are offered convenient charging possibilities.
Governmental support for charging infrastructures
With several EV purchase subsidies working their charm in numerous countries in the past few years, governments are now shifting their focus to expanding support for EV charge points. This comes in the form of subsidies and incentives, as well as developing legislation and regulations relating to payments, reliability, and interoperability of public charging infrastructures, to improve EV driver experiences.
The European Union developed the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), which requires, among other things, the installation of fast charge point ever 60 km along the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). In the UK, the Public Charge Point Regulations focus on improving the customer experience at public charge points.
The EU’s Energy Performance in Buildings Directive covers the rollout of private charging infrastructure in residential and commercial buildings. The directive outlines pre-cabling criteria to accommodate future EV charging infrastructure and avoid costly upgrades.
Charging for heavy-duty electric vehicles (HDEV)
Heavy-duty vehicles can generally charge at the same charge points as light-duty vehicles, but the bigger the size of the battery, the longer the charging time. Charging heavy-duty vehicles can thus result in disruptions and delays at regular charging facilities. Dedicated charging spaces for heavy-duty vehicles are more than needed.
| Virta, together with a petrol station operator AVEX, worked on building a charging hub with specific heavy-duty truck charging spots.-> Read about the collaboration here. |
To prepare for the wave of HDEVs, the AFIR legislation states that heavy-duty electric vehicles must be able to charge with a minimum output of 350 kW every 60 kilometres along the core TEN-T network and every 100 kilometres along the larger TEN-T network.
In addition, a new charging standard, the megawatt charging standard (MCS), which allows charging capacity up to 3.75 MW has been introduced to the market.
Introducing megawatt charging stations marks a turning point in the EV charging industry. With the ability to charge large batteries quickly, the MCS offers a solution to one of the biggest obstacles to widespread electric mobility: charging time.
This is especially important for heavy-duty transportation, where time equals money. The ability to charge e-trucks quickly and efficiently increases the attractiveness and competitiveness of electric vehicles in this segment.
The development of electric vehicle and charging technology
Smart charging
Smart charging of electric vehicles, i.e., cloud-connected charging devices, is already a standard in the industry. For business owners and consumers alike, smart EV charging allows, among other things, greater convenience and control over electricity consumption. The AFIR legislation states that all chargers installed or renovated from April 2024 must support smart charging.
Vehicle-to-Grid
Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology makes it possible to transfer the electricity stored in electric vehicle batteries back to the grid in the same way as stationary storages are connected to the grid. V2G services are already commercially available, and several charger manufacturers can supply V2G chargers.
The European standard for V2G charging, ISO 15118-20, developed back in 2020, defines the requirements for bidirectional charging. According to Bain & Company’s forecasts, solutions for energy management will also account for around three thirds of the revenues from the charging business by 2030.
Virta has been recognised as one of the global leaders in V2G technology.
Plug and Charge & Autocharge
Over the past few years, the EV charging industry has been developing technologies to simplify manual charging processes and remove friction.
Plug and Charge enables EV drivers to identify themselves safely and easily at the charging station by simply plugging in, as its name suggests.
Autocharge does the same thing, automatically initiates charging once plugged in, without the need for manual authentication.
Both technologies solve the same issue, but the way they work differs.
Autocharge relies on the EV’s ability to communicate with the Charge Point Management System (CPMS) via the OCPP protocol. Nearly all EVs have a unique MAC address (Media Access Control), which identifies them on a network.
Plug and Charge uses the ISO 15118 standard. This means that Plug and Charge only works with EVs that support ISO 15118, which not all do yet. Thanks to the ISO 15118 standard, Plug and Charge is more secure. Communication between the vehicle and the charger is facilitated using digital certificates and public key infrastructure (PKI). However, the added security comes at a cost; Plug and Charge is much more complex, resource-intensive and costly to implement.
Autocharge serves as an easy-to-implement, secure, and user-friendly solution that is easily adaptable to many EV charging players, especially across Europe. Plug and Charge is a more future-proof solution, but it is still some time away from becoming a widely used standard.
Megawatt Charging
As we already mentioned, the topic of megawatt charging systems is becoming increasingly important, especially for heavy-duty commercial vehicles and, in the future, also for passenger cars. The first megawatt charging stations were installed worldwide in 2024 and became more common in 2025.
Megawatt chargers enable charging capacities of more than 1,000 kW and thus drastically shorten the charging times for large batteries, which is a decisive factor for the use of electric trucks in long-distance transport. The first station models and charging platforms with megawatt charging technology have also been announced to be available for passenger cars, for example, in China.
However, expanding this ultra-fast charging infrastructure requires significant investment in the power grid and smart energy management solutions, such as coupling with battery storage to ease load peaks.
The development of electric car batteries
The increase in electric car registrations resulted in an increased production of automotive lithium-ion batteries. In 2024, EV battery demand hit the 1 TWh mark. Battery demand for electric trucks grew by 75%
China continues to dominate global battery production for electric vehicles: in 2024, almost 80% of all battery cells produced came from Chinese factories. China is also a leader in essential pre-products such as cathode and anode materials, with shares of over 85%.
While Europe and the US are trying to build up their own production capacities, the gap remains large. In Germany, for example, ambitious projects such as the Northvolt plant in Heide have stalled or been completely abandoned.
The IEA emphasises that greater diversification of supply chains and the development of regional battery factories are crucial to increasing supply security and reducing geopolitical risks.
Battery prices witness a drop
2024 was the year when prices of EV batteries significantly dropped. This was largely caused by prices of all major battery metals, like cobalt, graphite and manganese dropping. This caused a 20% price decrease of finished batteries compared to 2023.
Prices fell the most in China, almost 30%, compared to 10-15% in Europe and the US. This increases the competitive advantage of Chinese battery manufacturers.
Innovation to be expected
Innovation in battery technologies is predicted to accelerate. Some new technologies aim to lower the dependence on lithium while others strive to speed up electrification for long-haul trucks that benefit from high energy densities.
Battery recycling necessary
A common worry about electric car batteries is the difficulty of ensuring their sustainability. That’s where recycling and reuse must come into play. Global battery recycling capacity could reach 1,500 GWh by 2030. Advancements in battery recycling and the development of battery reuse options are already underway.
The environmental impact of EVs
In 2024, EVs consumed approximately 180 terawatt-hours of electricity, which corresponds to Argentina’s annual electricity consumption. However, globally, EVs only represented 0.7% of final energy consumption.
By 2030, EVs will account for around 4% of global electricity consumption. This increase will be affected mainly by increased consumption by electric trucks and greater EV uptake in general.
As the electricity demand for charging electric vehicles grows, the need to protect the electricity grid grows with it. Careful planning of electricity infrastructure, the widespread use of smart charging and the implementation of smart energy management solutions for load management will all be crucial to ensure healthy and balanced power systems.
EVs as battery storages
EVs have the potential to become the saving grace of energy utilities in the future. By the 2040s, electric vehicles will add up to over 30 TWh of installed battery storage capacity. For utilities, this means that EVs offer cheap energy storage, with no capital cost and relatively low operating costs.
This becomes especially interesting with the growth of renewable energies as their production tends to fluctuate. This technology is called Vehicle-To-Grid and enables energy to be pushed back to the power grid from the battery of an electric vehicle.
Emission savings
Based on Transport & Environment’s analysis, Europe is set to save 20 million tonnes of CO2 in transport emissions in 2025, thanks to the uptake of EVs.
In the grand scheme of things, it’s safe to conclude that the public debate over EVs vs ICE cars’ environmental impact is turning in favour of EVs.
Future predictions based on the Stated Policies Scenario say that by 2035, using EVs could help avoid 2 Gt of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) of GHG emissions, globally.
The current EV-related policies
It’s no secret that governmental and local policies play a huge role in accelerating EV adoption.
Major markets (China, the US, Europe) that are currently seeing rapidly growing EV sales began their EV journeys by introducing policies like vehicle purchase incentives.
However, since 2022, EV-related government subsidies have been on the decline.
In Europe, Germany saw the most significant changes. Their EUR 4,500 per-vehicle subsidy was phased out completely by the end of 2023, which affected the country’s EV uptake in 2024. On the other hand, the country introduced tax benefits for companies purchasing EVs for their corporate fleets.
A similar tax benefit was introduced in the UK, where company cars represented 60% of all car sales in 2024.
Although the UK stopped subsidising the sales of electric cars, the government dedicated GBP 1.6 billion to growing the public charging infrastructure. By 2030, 300,000 public chargers are expected to be installed in the country.
Shifting from incentivising the sales of electric cars to supporting heavy-duty transportation and the rollout of EV charging infrastructure is a common phenomenon in mature EV markets.
However, in emerging economies with large car markets, subsidies and incentives for electric cars still play a key role in further growth.
In addition to purchase incentives and subsidy programmes, governments are also instituting various policies targeting the EV charging infrastructure, its accessibility and EV charging payments. These policies are meant to ensure seamless charging experiences for EV drivers and help EV adoption.
The EU-wide AFIR legislation provides a framework for deploying alternative fuels infrastructure across the continent. AFIR focuses on sufficient infrastructure, transparent pricing, easy payments and more. Similarly, the UK has developed its own Public Charge Point Regulations.
The private sector’s response to EVs
Car manufacturers
Over the past few years, several car manufacturers have announced their electrification targets, but in 2024, many scaled back. This could be attributed to lower-than-expected demand and an uncertain policy landscape.
Brands like Ford, Volvo, and Renault have announced changes to their electrification targets. Ford, which wanted to fully transition to EV sales by 2030, has now stepped away from that goal. Similarly, Renault announced a joint focus on both EV and ICE cars despite its previous target of 100% EV sales by 2030.
However, despite these changes, the global EV sales in 2030 should still double from 2024.
Corporate and commercial fleets
On the fleet side, EV100 is a global initiative with 130 members who are committed to electrifying their corporate fleets and installing charging infrastructure for employees and customers by 2030.
To list a few examples, Unilever pledges to transition its fleet of more than 11,000 vehicles to electric and install workplace EV charging for its staff. ABB also plans to switch to electric for its 11,000 fleet vehicles.
But not only the companies participating in EV100 are introducing ambitious pledges.
In partnership with E.ON, DHL expanded its fast charging infrastructure for heavy-duty trucks at DHL distribution centres in Germany.
DB Schenker added 10 MAN eTGX trucks into their fleet, and they are planning to deploy 100 more by 2026.
Amazon, as part of its goal to reach 100,000 electric delivery vehicles by 2030, now has 20,000 vehicles through a 2019 agreement with Rivian.
Ingka Group, the biggest IKEA franchisee, served 40% of home deliveries with zero-emission vehicles in 2024.
Public pledges and actions like these pressure competitors and stakeholders to act faster than they otherwise would have.