The Future of Electric Car Charging in the EU and UK

‘Electric vehicle charging in the UK and Europe’, a report was done by Arthur D. Little, a global management consultancy firm, was released and details the near future of electric cars.

In recent years, the battery-electric (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) has been more than a niche technology or gimmick, today it is a serious contender to the traditional combustion engine. They are thought to be a real answer to the issues brought by fossil fuel vehicles in combatting air pollution and CO2 emissions.

The report notes the effect COVID-19 has had on the automotive sector, with new car sales dropping 30% in 2020. However, electric car sales both battery and hybrid went up 140%. There was also Europe which saw electric vehicle sales exceed 10% of the cars sold.

This coincides with the demand for a greener vehicle, while electric cars can cost around 25% more upfront than petrol/diesel, it more than pays itself off over time along with lowering battery prices. What is key is maintaining a good infrastructure to facilitate electric vehicles, as electric cars have much lower fuel costs and less maintenance.

This also would be beneficial as the EU has targets to reduce CO2 emissions by 55% by 2030, and the UK aiming for a 78% reduction by 2035. As well several companies like Volkswagen electric car, Tesla’s Model Y and Jaguar planning to go fully electric gives more incentive to bolster the charging infrastructure.

The report shows Britain is projected to have over 10 million electric cars on the road by 2030, with one in five of every car being an EV of some type and one in seven cars in Europe. Recharging these 10 million plus EVs will be difficult without the appropriate infrastructure and will require an estimated 20 TWh, which is 20 trillion watts per hour, the same amount of annual energy output or consumption of some countries.

Electric cars need chargers, which means a new industry

According to Arthur D. Little, the early adopters of EVs will see benefits for their patience as the electric charging market properly kicks off. This is as EV charging of civilian/passenger cars will surge by £7 billion in the UK and £43 billion across Europe in 2030. This is seven times higher than the revenue today in 2021, with a compound annual growth rate of 25%.

The report breaks down the EV market into different revenue pools, some of the important ones are as follows. Hardware accounts for making and selling charging modules and related hardware, it also fulfills services needed to put the infrastructure in place for these chargers such as installation and maintenance.

Asset ownership accounts for revenue generated via the sale of charging services by the owners of public charging infrastructure, on private property or otherwise. Operations and platform include all revenue provisioning of charge point management software, tech help hotlines, maintenance and field servicing.

Energy management applies to the impact of consumers charging on power connection levels and balancing power to the grid by pooling the EVs connected to it. Electricity and grid include the sale of electricity and the usage of the local grid, which can be either private homes, companies, or public chargers.

There are more categories in the report and it goes into greater detail and they predict that due to this ramp-up in the EV charging sector shares at 20% will grow to 50% by 2030. Which will be roughly £1,600 – £1,800 for each car sold and £400-£500 in recurring payments due to 45% of the market being “hardware and related fulfillment services” by late 2030.

The report goes into greater detail on the future of EVs in general with respect to the varying aspects of the industry like electric scooters, mobility aids etc. If you’d like to read more, check out the report here.

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