While currently, Italy has more than 37,000 charging points, it is expected that this number will grow considerably in the medium and short term.
The fact is that various companies have presented projects for the installation of more stations throughout the national territory.
According to an announcement from Renault‘s electric mobility division in late 2022, the company plans to have opened the ambitious number of 50 stations in Italy by mid-2024.
This is part of an even larger project that involves Belgium, Spain, and France, where 150 hubs will be installed by the same date.
In a similar vein, investor and infrastructure advisor Macquarie Capital and the Italian company IPLANET have established a joint venture to electrify service stations in the country.
The alliance will oversee the transition from traditional fuel pumps to electric charging stations in 510 IP service areas.
This is a long-term project, as the series of conversions is expected to be completed by 2032.
On the other hand, Endesa X Way in Spain and Ewiva in Italy will carry out the “Heavy Wave-e” project, which will enable the installation of 460 HPC points for both passenger and cargo vehicles with up to 400 kW capacity.
These points will be placed at 50 locations, with 30 in Italy and 20 in Spain. The hubs are expected to be all set by the end of 2025.
Ewiva has stated that it intends to build a network of over 3,000 ultra-fast high-power points (up to 350 kW) throughout Italy between 2023 and 2025.
Specifically, an investment of 37.3 million euros has already been confirmed for this period to install a total of 360 equipments spread across 30 locations throughout the country.
Also involved in the deployment of chargers is the Dutch company Fastned, smaller in size but growing rapidly. Italy will be the eighth country where the brand will operate.
The firm has signed an agreement with A4 Holding Group to build a station on the A4 Brescia – Padova highway with eight chargers for electric vehicles.
Looking to the future, there is also the proposal by Wallbox and Atlante, two companies that have joined forces to develop public points in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal.
This agreement will allow them to install 5,000 charging points by 2025.
Finally, it is worth noting that Enel X has installed over 16,000 points in Italy, becoming the largest national infrastructure network.
On the other hand, BeCharge, in collaboration with Plenitude, is responsible for around 14,000 of these.
The Italian government promotes 27,000 charging points
In terms of the state sector, through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), the Italian government proposes the installation of 6,500 electric vehicle charging points by mid-2024.
The PNRR was approved in 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic to reactivate the country’s economy and promote ecological and digital development.
This is a project that is part of the European Union’s Next Generation EU program, which has a fund of 750 billion euros for the region’s recovery.
Specifically for Italy, a budget of 191.5 million euros was allocated, including 68.8 billion euros in grants and 122.6 billion euros in loans.
As part of the action plan, it is expected that by June 2024, 2,500 points will be installed on highways and 4,000 around cities.
In addition, the idea is that these figures would increase to 7,500 and 13,000, respectively, by the end of 2025.
This way, there would be 27,000 new points by the conclusion of this period.
It is worth remembering that Italy has set the goal of having 110,000 public charging points for electric vehicles by 2030.
To achieve the set goals, the state sector has made a series of decisions.
For example, the Regulatory Transport Authority has implemented regulations for highway concessionaires by selecting charging point operators (CPOs) for the first time.
It has agreed with Autostrade per l’Italia, which operates around 200 service stations in Italy, to complete the installation of points at 100 service areas by the end of 2023 through its Free To X company.
In addition, tenders will be initiated to select new CPOs in the remaining service areas in early 2024.
In this way, the active conversion of gas stations into electric vehicle charging stations is actively encouraged.
