Charging Infrastructure: The Backbone of E-Mobility
Author: Michael Vogel
The public charging infrastructure is an important factor in the drive transition. The development of charging points has accelerated significantly in the EU.
Currently, almost eleven million electric vehicles are driving on European roads. Every fifth car sold in Europe in the past year was a hybrid or a pure electric vehicle. Despite stagnating sales in 2024, the European industry association ChargeUpEurope, based in Brussels, expects the proportion of electrically powered cars in the EU to rise from the current four percent to around 30 percent by 2030. And although more than 90 percent of charging processes in Europe take place at home, at the workplace or in fleet depots, public charging stations are essential to ensure a reliable and sufficiently dense energy supply. According to ChargeUpEurope, around 950,000 public charging points were available in the 27 EU countries at the end of the first quarter of 2025.
The association predicts that this figure will rise to 3.8 million over the next ten years. This implies that construction activity is likely to be thriving. DEKRA expert Michael Ringleb can confirm that the pace in the installation of charging points has “picked up significantly” in recent months. Ringleb is a product manager for electrical engineering and e-mobility at DEKRA Automobil and a recognized expert in electrical engineering. In this role, he also supervises the installation of charging stations: "The scope varies greatly. It ranges from the approval process in accordance with current standards after a charging station has been installed to accompanying a project from the ground-breaking ceremony to final approval."
Charging electric vehicles safely
During the charging process, the voltage and temperature of the battery cells must not exceed critical limits. The power that a charging park draws from the supply grid also needs to remain below a certain value. This is the only way to ensure that neither the battery cells are damaged nor the charging station or the supply grid are overloaded. In addition, the charging station has to be built so that people are protected from electric shocks when using it.
This comes off like an obvious fact, of course. Yet outdoor chargers are exposed to strongly fluctuating humidity, rain, ice and UV radiation. They can also be damaged or even sabotaged. Nevertheless, the operating companies have to ensure that people using the charging points are not harmed. This can be ensured by a standard-compliant installation that provides suitable safety mechanisms as well as an approval review before a charging station goes into operation. “Such an approval includes a visual inspection plus the inspection of relevant documents and protocols in accordance with the regulatory requirements,” explains Ringleb.
Find more information on the safety of charging stations here:
https://www.dekra.com/en/ev-charging-station-safety/
Skills shortage in the construction of charging stations
Ringleb has already been involved in quite a few such construction projects. “The shortage of skilled workers is really noticeable here,” says the DEKRA expert. “Sometimes you get the impression that anyone who knows how to connect a power cable thinks they are competent enough to install a charging station that delivers an immense electrical output in the high kilowatt range.” He has seen cases in which operating or installation instructions have clearly not been read, and in some cases he witnessed a lack of basic knowledge “that is part of the first or second year of training”. The core problem does not lie with the investors or operators of the charging stations, but often with the fact that the company carrying out the work subcontracts parts of the work to insufficiently qualified subcontractors. “As an example, cable cross-sections are dimensioned too small or the earthing is not carried out correctly,” says Ringleb, citing two instances that he's experienced several times. As an expert, he ensures that these and other defects are professionally rectified before final acceptance.
Three different charging technologies in Europe
There are three different technologies in the EU, broken down by charging power: alternating current (AC) charging up to 22 kilowatts charging power, direct current (DC) charging with more than 22 kilowatts and high-power direct current charging with at least 150 kilowatts, often referred to as fast charging. AC charging stations were mainly installed in the past decade because this technology was sufficient for many electric vehicles and EV charging technology was not yet as advanced; DC charging stations in particular have been installed in recent years. The higher the charging capacity of the charging station, the faster an electric vehicle can charge, provided it supports this technically.
According to ChargeUpEurope, the number of DC fast-charging stations increased significantly faster than the number of AC charging stations between 2020 and 2024. Overall, the public charging infrastructure in the EU has grown at an average annual rate of 39 percent over the past decade. According to the association, the density of the charging network has increased by 88 percent since 2022. Germany, France and Sweden are leading the way in the installation of fast chargers.
Status quo: charging capacity in the EU countries
At the end of 2024, there was an average of 199 charging points per 100,000 inhabitants across all capacity classes in the 27 EU countries. The rate is particularly high in Belgium (1005), the Netherlands (655), Denmark (598) and Sweden (507). Bringing up the rear are Romania (24), Poland (25) and Cyprus (37). France (234) and Germany (189) are located in the middle of the field. According to ChargeUpEurope, countries that started building charging infrastructure later tend to have installed charging points with a higher capacity.
The Scientific Foresight Unit, an interdisciplinary technology advisory body of the European Parliament, recommended four measures to the EU member states, based on an expert workshop in spring, in order to further advance the expansion of the European charging network:
- accelerate grid connection and invest in grid infrastructure with foresight,
- streamline licensing in the Member States to avoid market fragmentation,
- create investment incentives, especially for charging heavy commercial vehicles and for charging in rural areas,
- and to promote innovations to intelligently control charging and grid optimization via AI.
As early as 2022, the International Energy Agency showed in a report that in China – the world's largest market for electric vehicles – investments in charging infrastructure have proven to be four times more effective for the spread of electric vehicles than subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles.
What the gas station is for combustion engines, the charging station is for electric cars. These must be powerful, universally applicable and safe. DEKRA experts provide support with planning, system and component selection and test charging infrastructure in accordance with all current standards. Further information at
https://www.dekra.com/en/charging-infrastructure/