The national infrastructure challenges.
Photograph: EVBox FB Page
Text: Mariano Anthony Davies
Although the Danish Transport Ministry has announced that the number of public access electric car charging points increased by 68 percent to 4,828 from 2020-2021, the gap between the number of charge points and the number needed is growing as there are three times as many electric cars on Danish roads since 2019.
EV mobility in an urban environment has become paramount to citizens' quality of life. According to EU statistics, Denmark installed 13 new electric vehicle charging points in late 2014, and now there are well over 5.000 - enabling increased long-distance travel in electric vehicles.
In the last three months of 2021, around 28% of municipalities expanded their charging networks and infrastructure so that by the end of the year, there were 66,000 electric vehicles and 4,850 publicly accessible charging points in 95 municipalities. This, according to the Ministry of Transport, corresponds to 1 charging point for around 14 electric cars.
"The green transition is our generation's biggest and most important task. The transport area is central, and therefore, as Minister of Transport, I want to focus on possibilities for pushing for more climate-friendly transport. Here, more electric cars are part of the solution, and there will be no increase in green cars if the number of charging stations does not follow," commented the Danish Minister of Transport, Trine Bramsen.
According to the Ministry, Frederiksberg Municipality has the most charging points in relation to population. More specifically, it has 2.7 charging points per 1,000 inhabitants, with the national average being 0.83. Frederiksberg's performance is not surprising as the municipality has previously stated its ambition to become Denmark's Electric Car City No. 1. Furthermore, it has also announced its goal to have a charging point no more than 250 metres away from every building.
On 5 August, the Danish Municipality of Frederiksberg will host an Electric Car Day in collaboration with the Danish Electric Car Alliance. All the city's residents are officially invited to attend this event, where they can learn more about the benefits and features of electric vehicles.
More specifically, attendees will be able to view the latest models of electric cars, and the municipality will publicly exhibit some of its own green vehicles. Taking this a step further, residents will also have the opportunity to talk to manufacturers, drivers and representatives from the City of Frederiksberg to gain more knowledge about electric cars.
Additionally, charging infrastructure provider EVBox Group has announced a new cooperation with Norlys, Denmark's largest energy and telecommunications group. The partners aim to install 300,000 charging stations for electric vehicles across Denmark by 2030.
This deal also includes the private and public sectors, with Norlys wanting to integrate EVBox's charging stations and management software Everon into its product portfolio. The companies have not yet disclosed the type of charging stations they will install.
Norlys, a consumer-owned company, resulted from a merger between SE and Eniig and claims to have 730,000 shareholders, about 1.5 million customers and 2,500 employees. The company says it aims to contribute to a green and digitalised Denmark. Therefore, the 300,000 charging stations directly tie into Denmark's climate target to put 760,000 electric and hybrid vehicles on the road by 2030.
The new charging station is centrally located on the E20 motorway in the Danish city of Fredericia.
"As Denmark's largest energy and telecommunications group, Norlys can play a big role in establishing EV charging infrastructure that will usher in a new era of sustainable mobility in Denmark," Bram Poeth, CCO at EVBox Group, added when announcing the new partnership.
At the same time, and in cooperation with Powered by E.ON Drive & Clever, COBE has designed a new type of charging station for electric vehicles (EVs) in Scandinavia. The stations not only promise to recharge a vehicle in just 15 minutes but also offer drivers and passengers a welcome break and the chance to recharge their own mental batteries while the car is powered up.
The new charging station is centrally located on the E20 motorway in the Danish city of Fredericia. It is the first of its kind and part of an upcoming network of 48 ultra-fast EV charging stations along Scandinavian highways. In the future, electricity will replace fossil fuels in our vehicles. However, while it currently takes around five minutes to fill up the gas tank, recharging an EV is much more time-consuming. In our busy everyday lives, every minute counts.
Future charging stations should optimise a car's charging time and offer a meaningful mental break for people to rejuvenate themselves while on the move.