The EU plans to reduce emissions by at least 55% by 2030 (compared with 1990 levels), and become the world's first climate neutral continent by 2050. All sectors of the economy are expected to contribute to these reductions, including transport. Transport is one of the few industries where greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been rising since 1990, accounting for nearly 20% of total EU GHG emissions.

By 2030, CO2 emissions from new passenger cars and trucks must be reduced by 55% compared to 2021. The current truck regulations call for a 30% reduction by 2030 and will be reviewed in 2022.

The automotive industry is vital to the EU: accounting for more than 7% of EU GDP, providing jobs for 14.6 million Europeans, and is currently changing because of such an ambitious target.

Key insights

EU-27's electric vehicle charging master plan estimates that by 2030, about 280 billion euros will be needed to install charging points (hardware and labor), upgrade the grid, and generate renewable energy for charging electric vehicles. Of this, about 185 billion euros came from personal computers, 50 billion euros from light commercial vehicles and 45 billion euros from trucks and buses. Both public and non-public charging points have been considered in this analysis.

Across the EU, public charging points are defined as charging points with non-discriminatory access. According to this definition, charging points in supermarket car parks or open-access car parks are included in public charging points.

By 2050, the total investment in charging infrastructure (public charging stations and home charging stations), grid upgrading and renewable energy will be about 1 trillion euros, which is necessary to complete the transformation from EU-27 to electric road transport. According to the overall planning of EV charging, by 2030, about 30% of the total capital expenditure will need to be invested in infrastructure to reduce CO2 emissions in road traffic.