The Regulation on the introduction of infrastructure for alternative fuels (AFIR), which has been in force since last week, obliges EU member states to increase the number of charging stations for electric vehicles, especially on the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), and the question is whether Croatia has suitable infrastructure for this.
AFIR obliges Croatia to ensure charging stations on TEN-T with an equivalent power of 1.3 kW for each registered fully electric vehicle and 0.8 kW of power for each plug-in hybrid, and it will also be mandatory to align capacities annually according to the growth in the number of registered electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
The Croatian network is not ready to accept and distribute the necessary amounts of electricity
Traffic expert Željko Marušić says that new generation electric cars have a real range of 250 to 400 kilometers, half that of cars with conventional engines, which means they need to charge their energy storage twice as often.
On highways, we have created charging stations for electricity every fifty kilometers, with an average of two fast charging spots and two to three normal ones, which is insufficient for tourism and transit vehicles.
– An effective electric charging station, or a stop with about ten charging spots for electric vehicles, both personal and commercial, should have two to three MW of installed power, so the main problem is how to ensure and distribute enough electricity with the required installed charging power for charging stations across the country, especially on major roads and in urban areas – said Marušić to Hina.
He emphasizes that the problem is not making charging stations, but ensuring and distributing enough electricity because electricity can be bought and imported, but our network is not ready to accept and distribute the necessary quantities, and it will not be cost-effective to build power lines and substations to some locations.
For charging stations for light and heavy electric vehicles to function along TEN-T, instead of building power lines and substations, small power plants will be built, e.g., gas, and this is also an option for peak power supply for charging stations that will primarily be powered through power lines and substations.
Marušić believes that the electrification of road traffic will primarily lead to a shift rather than a reduction in global pollution.
– Electric cars do not produce harmful gas emissions, but if they run on electricity imported, e.g., from Bosnia and Herzegovina, where nine million tons of coal are burned annually in thermal power plants, then pollution reduction has not been achieved – says Marušić.
From the Croatian Association for Electromobility Strujni krug, they say that Croatia had 5,850 registered electric vehicles and about three thousand plug-in hybrids by mid-year, which means it would need to install chargers with a total power of 10,005 kW. This is equivalent to 200 fast chargers of 50 kW or 100 ultra-fast chargers of 100 kW.
The president of Strujni krug Hrvoje Prpić emphasizes that AFIR obliges us to install charging stations every 60 kilometers of TEN-T by the end of 2025, and these stations must have a minimum available power of 400 kW, which does not have to be at one location, but one station must have a power of 150 kW.
By the end of 2027, this power should increase from 400 to 600 kW, with at least two stations providing 150 kW of power. A 150 kW charging station can charge an average car in 15-20 minutes.
Heavy electric vehicles, trucks, and buses should, according to AFIR, have stops with at least 1400 kW distributed across multiple chargers on at least 15 percent of TEN-T by the end of 2025, and at least one of the chargers must provide 350 kW of power.
By the end of 2027, it is required that already 50 percent of TEN-T is supplied with stops with a minimum total power of 2800 kW and at least two chargers of 350 kW.
This infrastructure needs to expand to roads connected to TEN-T, according to AFIR, by the end of 2027, charging stations for heavy electric vehicles need to be equipped on half of such roads, and all others by the end of 2030.
The Strujni krug Association, which is the national representative in the European Association for Electromobility, is working on improving the overall infrastructure for electromobility, including legislative solutions to simplify the payment of incentives, and to start installing 100,000 chargers in public lighting poles.
Marušić says that batteries can only be charged in 30 minutes at ultra-fast charging stations, which is the only acceptable time; otherwise, the driver must wait several hours for the batteries to charge.
Charging a dozen vehicles simultaneously can cause the collapse of the electricity distribution system
This raises a problem because just one fast charging spot, from 10 to 80 percent capacity of a serious car, engages 150 kW of power in the electrical network, as for a smaller neighborhood.
Charging a dozen vehicles simultaneously would jeopardize the operation of the urban electricity distribution system, or cause its collapse, claims Marušić.
With the implementation of AFIR, along with the expected increasing share of electric vehicles in traffic, especially among tourists, we should expect that in five to six years, every existing gas station on highways and in larger cities will need to have installed charging power of 2 to 3 MW, and the construction of numerous additional stations.
Marušić believes that to supply them with electricity, a nuclear power plant should be built along the stretch from Bosiljeva to Sv. Roka, with a network of power lines and substations, because wind and solar power plants will not be able to solve the problem of effective electrical supply for future electrified road traffic.
However, in the strategies for the development of electrified traffic, renewable energy sources (wind power plants, solar power plants, hydroelectric plants…) are prioritized.
According to documents from the Croatian Parliament, the intention of the adopted TEN-T Regulation is to build an efficient and multimodal European network of railways, inland waterways, short sea routes, and roads, which are connected to urban nodes, maritime and inland ports, airports, and terminals.
In this context, a lack of infrastructure for alternative fuels has been noted, which negatively impacts the climate and environment. The TEN-T network suffers from bottlenecks that limit transport capacity and hinder the flow of traffic, and insufficient networks prevent the establishment of efficient multimodal transport.
The European Green Deal from December 2019 sets the goal of climate neutrality for the EU by 2050, as well as a reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
Transport emissions account for a quarter of total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU, so the European Green Deal sets the goal of reducing transport greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent to make the Union a climate-neutral economy by 2050 while working towards achieving zero pollution.
