The European Union has a range of policies aimed at making mobility more sustainable. In all these policies electric cars play a very prominent role. Light, electric vehicles (LEVs) however are very often overlooked mostly due to awareness. One of the main activities of LEVA-EU is to raise awareness on LEVs in European institutions so that LEVs are much better included in policies and legislation. LEVA-EU is working on this in the review of the Alternative Fuels’ Infrastructure Directive.

The Alternative Fuels’ Infrastructure Directive (AFID) is meant to speed up the roll-out of charging infrastructure for cars in the EU. Originally, here too only cars were cars but thanks to ETRA the final text included a reference to the L-category, which covers most of the LEVs. Unfortunately, the AFID did not hold any specific targets for LEVs.

Originally, the European Commission tried to impose specific targets for the number of charging point per member state. The Council however turned this down and the Commission toned the legislation down to the suggestion of trying to achieve at least one recharging point per 10 cars. For LEVs, the Commission suggested nothing specific because there were no European harmonized standards to refer to for such charging points. Now there is a proposal for the necessary standards. This allows the Commission to include specific suggestions for the benefit of charging infrastructure for LEVs in the revision of AFID.

In the framework of the feedback period, which finished on 20th March, LEVA-EU has submitted concrete proposals. LEVA-EU believes that the new edition of AFID must actively encourage the roll-out of charging points that can also be used by LEVs, especially in urban areas. LEVA-EU argues that charging points suitable both for cars and LEVs will be much more efficient and effective. Furthermore, it will also avoid charging points becoming redundant should a city decide to ban all cars. The full text of the LEVA-EU feedback is here: https://bit.ly/2umX8D8

The Commission’s proposal for ensure that LEVs are able to charge across the EU at standardised recharging points is here: https://bit.ly/2YdEM56 The feedback finishes on 12 April. LEVA-EU will send in comments on the proposal, therefore you are welcome to send your feedback to LEVA-EU as well: annick@leva-eu.com