Good news on the sustainable mobility front in Italy: electric cars and charging stations are on the rise. This is confirmed by the report Le infrastrutture di ricarica pubbliche in Italia (Public Charging Infrastructure in Italy) by Motus-E, the association that brings together stakeholders in electric mobility. Published in January 2022, it reports data updated to December 2021. Let's look at some figures to understand where we stand.
Despite the slowdowns related to the pandemic, 2021 closed with a total of 136,7541 electric or hybrid vehicles registered, equal to a +128% compared to 2020. Northern regions are leading, representing 64% of the total market. For sustainable mobility in Italy, the numbers are encouraging. However, compared to the European context, they are still modest: Italy is ranked fifth. But we are second in Europe for the ratio between the number of charging infrastructures and the number of electric vehicles in circulation. The objective is clearly to "push" for a widespread distribution of charging services throughout the territory.
Some data: as of December 31, 2021, there were 13,233 charging infrastructures – meaning stations or charging points capable of charging more than one vehicle simultaneously – in 10,503 publicly accessible locations. This represents a 36% growth compared to the previous year, confirming a continuously increasing trend. How are these infrastructures distributed across the national territory? Here too, the differences are significant. More than half are distributed in Northern Italy (57%), with Lombardy alone boasting 17% of the charging points. Central and Southern Italy-Islands are more or less equivalent, with 23% and 20% respectively. The data for the 10 metropolitan cities, distributed across North, Center, and South, is cross-cutting. While hosting 14% of the national population, they concentrate 17% of the total charging points.
Electric mobility is an urban thing, one might conclude. A look at the situation on motorways seems to confirm this. To date, we read in the report, the charging infrastructures present on the motorway network amount to 1.2 per 100 km. This becomes 40 if we add the infrastructures located nearby, but which still require exiting the toll booth. To meet the new European targets, Italy should be able to install approximately 2,000 charging points by 2030, paving the way for out-of-town trips for families and company fleets.
