November 3, 2022 - According to Hrvoje Prpić of Strujni Krug, by 2030, Croatia must have enough electric vehicle charging stations as if 5% of the total 'fleet' was fully electric.

As Poslovni writes, the European Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) has reached a new level that will have significant effects on Croatia as well after the Committee for Transport and Tourism of the European Parliament adopted the regulation proposal for consideration, which is now going to the EU Parliament and the EU Council.

The new regulation established the so-called nationally binding goals that will prescribe how many European Union member states must set up electricity or hydrogen filling stations for light and heavy vehicles and also insists on the unification of payments via bank credit cards.

For example, for member states such as Croatia, which have less than 1% share of electric vehicles in the total fleet of vehicles, it is determined that by 2025 they must install charging stations with a power equivalent of 3kW for each fully electric vehicle and 2kW for each plug-in hybrid vehicle. According to the current situation, Croatia would have to install chargers with a total power of 11,524 kW.

Personal and light delivery vehicles

As explained by Hrvoje Prpić, the president of the Association of Electric Vehicle Drivers - Strujni Krug, Croatia will need to install 100-200 fast charging stations for electric vehicles by 2025, depending on their power, to fulfill this condition.

He adds that by 2027, the infrastructure of charging stations across the country will have to provide the same power as if 3% of the total fleet were fully electric. By 2030, the number of stations will have to increase as if 5% of the total fleet were fully electric. Thus, by 2027, and according to the current situation and the number of the current fleet, Croatia will have to install charging stations with a total power of over 70,000 kW, and by 2030 with a total power of more than 119,000 kW.

"If, for example, ultra-fast charging stations with a power of 150 kW are to be installed, which can charge an average vehicle in 10-25 minutes, Croatia will have to install around 470 such charging stations by 2027, and almost 800 by 2030," says Prpić. There are currently around 2.8 million motor vehicles registered in Croatia, of which 2.2 million are passenger cars. The number of electric vehicles is around 2,000.

The AFIR would set goals for the significant strengthening of the infrastructure on the TEN-T corridor, which connects all the main traffic points in Europe. This means that the number of charging stations for light and heavy electric vehicles on the routes Ljubljana - Zagreb, and Varaždin - Rijeka would be further increased.

For electric passenger and light delivery vehicles, the regulation aims to ensure complete coverage of charging stations along the leading EU network and thus ensure easy travel by electric vehicles throughout the Union.

The goal is that by 2025 there will be a station every 60 km with charging stations with a total power of at least 600 kW and at least one charging station of 300 kW. By 2030, the mentioned charging stations at the stops should be upgraded to 900 kW, and at least two charging stations should have a power of 350 kW.

Upgrading the rest stops

On the other hand, AFIR requires that, by 2025, for heavy delivery and passenger vehicles on the TEN-T corridor, charging stations with a minimum power of 2000 kW must be installed every 60 km, of which at least two will have a power of 800 kW. By 2030, these stations should be upgraded with charging stations with a total power of 5,000 kW, of which at least four will have a capacity of 800 kW.

Additionally, on all roads connected to the TEN-T corridor, member states must provide a network of charging stations every 100 km by 2025, which will have a total power of 2000 kW and at least one charging station with a capacity of 800 kW. By 2035, the charging stations will have to be upgraded to a total power of 5000 kW with at least two charging stations with a capacity of 800 kW.

Additionally, each urban junction on the mentioned roads will have to have a minimum of 1400 kW of power by the end of 2025, which will be distributed to four 350 kW charging stations, and by 2030 the total capacity will have to increase to 3500 kW.

Additional rest areas/parking lots will have to provide at least two charging stations with a minimum power of 100 kW with V2G technology by 2027 or at least four such charging stations by 2030.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Travel section.

ZAGREB, 18 Feb 2022 - Croatian parliamentarians on Thursday supported amendments to a law on the establishment of infrastructure for alternative fuels, underlining the importance of building as many charging stations for alternative fuels as possible.

A state secretary at the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Ministry, Josip Bilaver, said that the amendments were aimed at developing infrastructure for alternative fuels (electricity, hydrogen, biofuels, natural gas) as a precondition for their use in transport.

This would help develop a sustainable market and transport system based on alternative fuels as well as their minimum impact on the environment and society, he said.

He noted that the bill ensured alignment with EU regulations and created preconditions for a better provision of services for users of alternative fuels by establishing a register of charging stations for alternative fuels.

1,300 new charging stations in next 2-3 years

Noting that the ministry was not satisfied with the number of charging stations for alternative fuels and their capacity, Bilaver said that under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, in the next two to three years 1,300 new charging stations would be built, of which 200 would be fast and 1,100 standard.

Anka Mrak Taritaš (Centre/GLAS) said that Croatia was dealing with the topic of alternative fuels not because it wanted to but because it had to, as it was an EU topic.

She noted that public transport was the biggest source of pollution in road, rail and other transport.

The key question, therefore, is what kind of fuels public transport vehicles will use, she said, wondering what Croatia would subsidize and what it would invest in.

The MP said that in 2021 more than 50% of vehicles sold on the European market were electric vehicles and that they would arrive in Croatia as a tourist country. Important for visitors will be what kind of charging stations we have and how fast they are. "We have to take that into account as well," she said.

SDP MP Mirela Ahmetović said that Croatia is aligning with a 2014 EU directive and its amended version from 2019, while the EC has published a proposal for a new regulation for infrastructure for alternative fuels, which should go into force already this year to encourage a faster transition to mobility with low or zero emissions, with appropriate infrastructure for vehicles powered by alternative fuels.

And we are introducing a directive that we will soon have to repeal, she warned.

Željko Pavić of the Social Democrats believes it is important that as a tourist destination Croatia legally defines the development of infrastructure for hydrogen charging stations also for vessels due to boaters who, he said, will definitely start using hydrogen as a fuel for their vessels. This is also important for people living on islands and shipping companies that will seek an alternative for oil products, he said.

Miro Totgergeli of the HDZ group said that over the past five years a large number of charging stations for electric vehicles had been built but apart from liquefied petroleum gas, the use of other alternative fuels for transport was rather limited in Croatia. The market for vehicles that do not use oil products is also very small, he said.

Noting that the EU would reduce energy consumption by 36% by 2030 to achieve the target of carbon neutrality by 2050, Vesna Vučemilović of the Croatian Sovereignists said that the volume of transport in the EU was constantly growing, which would have an effect on climate change, the quality of air, and infrastructure.

She also warned that a biodiesel factory in Vukovar was closed down in 2016 because there was no market for it.

For more, check out our politics section.

January the 14th, 2022 - There needs to be many more Croatian charging stations dotted around the country to meet EU standards, despite the fact that the purchase of electric cars in the bloc is still somewhat modest.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, although the number of electric cars in some European Union countries has already reached an enviable level, the fact is that in most others it is modest, to say the very least. The main reason, with the still relatively high purchase price, is the insufficient charging infrastructure for such vehicles across the bloc.

There are around 600 Croatian charging stations located up and down the country, suitable for about 2,000 electric cars. It may seem to those not in the loop that this is enough, because, by comparison, for the 2.8 million registered Croatian petrol and diesel motor vehicles, we have 800 fuel stations.

However, e-mobility technology is somewhat different and requires longer and more frequent charging and as such a denser network of charging stations, which in turn entails the adjustment of a country's electricity network and overall capacities. This could soon be applied here in Croatia because, according to the Croatian National Association for e-Mobility Circuit, which is part of the European Association for Electromobility - AVERE, the new EU plan is for member states to create e-charging capacities at level the level of 10% of the total fleet, which means that within the domestic, framework we would theoretically need to have have tens of thousands of Croatian charging stations that could theoretically serve 280 thousand vehicles.

National goals

''For the last six months, we've been working hard on the new regulation for alternative fuel infrastructure (AFIR), which is a strategic document of the European Union that defines the use of alternative energy sources, namely electric vehicles. The difference between the previous directive and the new regulation is that this regulation is mandatory, and the directive serves solely as advice to member states. We're currently working on regulations that will oblige Croatia to adhere to these new rules. With the arrival of these regulations, we can expect an even greater number of super fast vehicle chargers, not only for personal transport, but also for truck traffic on the stretch from Varazdin to Rijeka and Zagreb to Ljubljana in Slovenia,'' explained Hrvoje Prpic, President of the Circuit.

He added that the new AFIR regulation significantly better defines the publicly available infrastructure for charging electric vehicles, and most importantly, the regulation seeks to ensure the simplest possible increase in the number of charging stations across the European Union. AVERE's proposal is for each country in the EU to install enough infrastructure for at least 10% of the total number of vehicles registered in the country, which in Croatia, for example, would be much more infrastructure than is currently needed for the existing number of electric vehicles.

Circuit believes that this is a great way to motivate future vehicle buyers to consider switching to zero-CO2 vehicles, because in that case they would come to empty Croatian charging stations and not worry about needing to find a place to charge their car, and on the other hand, these charging stations would be co-financed by the EU, so such expansion of such infrastructure would not cost the state all that much.

In addition to that, AFIR would set goals in order to significantly strengthen the infrastructure on the TEN-T corridor - a single trans-European road network that connects all major transport points in Europe.

This means that the number of charging stations for light and heavy electric vehicles would be further increased across Croatia and in its neighbouring countries. AFIR requires that at least one charging station for electric trucks or buses with two chargers up to 350 kW be available, and for light passenger vehicles, there must be at least one charging station with two chargers up to 150 kW on the TEN-T corridor by the year 2025.

By 2030, that number of fuel stations must be doubled. On all additional roads connected to the TEN-T corridor, EU member states must ensure a uniform network of fuel stations every 100 kilometres. According to AFIR, charging for vehicle charging should also be possible with the help of bank cards, so all charging station operators should install card readers at their future Croatian charging stations.

This would greatly facilitate the charging of the vehicles belonging to many electric vehicle drivers, especially for tourists who are unfamiliar with the charger network in the country they are visiting.

For more, check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

More than 300 applications for subsidies for alternatively fueled vehicles were received by the Environment protection and energy efficiency fund, they are expecting an even larger number of applicants in 2016.