Along with innovative technologies, the 21st century has seen a growing culture of environmental responsibility. In this context, the carbon footprint reduction is an important objective of today’s society and it can be achieved with the wide adoption of electric vehicles. The electric vehicle market is still emerging in the EU, but there are clear indications of its imminent growth. There is a visible shift towards electric power trains and more models are expected to come to the market. Adoption level and potential are higher among multi-car households and for those who have easier access to charging facilities – at work for example.
On the regulatory side, the European Commission has shown its support for the further adoption of electric mobility with it being an important part of the Green Car Initiative (GCI) included in the European Economic Recovery Plan. There are measures to promote efficient vehicles within the Directive 2009/33/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 23 April 2009 addressing the promotion of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles. Notable measures can be also found in the Directive 2006/32/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 5 April 2006 for energy end-use efficiency and energy services.
Together with the growing adoption of Electric Vehicles, the technology and infrastructure to charge them is developing as well. The public sector has taken the lead in installing infrastructure where drivers can plug in to charge, but given that the costs for the large-scale deployment of charging infrastructure in Europe are too significant it is important that commercial viability in the deployment of charging infrastructure is achieved in the coming years.
The European Union will continue to enforce its current policy requiring member states to “take measures within their national policy frameworks to encourage and facilitate the deployment of recharging points not accessible to the public”. Anything more prescriptive would be ill adapted to the EU legal order. EU law with all its inbred inertia must not risk imposing costly adaptation obligations that are outdated before they are amortised.
We consider that EU legislation could and should provide the framework for national building regulations requiring that new buildings be designed to allow subsequent development of recharging facilities for electric cars. This means that a guideline should be established for the necessary electrical wiring to be implemented while the building is under construction so as to make it possible to subsequently install recharging stations with minimum modifications.
The developer would install the necessary wiring while the owner or tenant would eventually decide on the recharging facility itself. This approach offers more flexibility and is better suited for further development driven by market necessities.
No EU policy must supersede, by dint of primacy of EU law, other, equally important policies exercised at national or local level and it must not interfere with political arbitration between competing policies at those levels. It is local authorities who are best placed to determine placement and provision of recharging points and other infrastructure, and where they believe a major development should provide them or to require developers to do so as a quid pro quo for development approval.
In conclusion, developers should prepare for future EV market growth, but keep a conservative investment approach, with modular systems, until the EV market becomes more mature.