EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 8.3.2021 COM(2021) 103 final REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the application of Directive 2014/94/EU on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure {SWD(2021) 49 final}



1 Introduction The European Union is committed to achieving the highest levels of climate and environmental protection. As a result, ramping up the production, deployment and use of sustainable alternative fuels is a key priority of European transport, energy and climate policies. Building-up a dense, widespread, reliable and easy-to-use alternative fuels infrastructure network across all modes is a key element to reach the climate neutrality target by 2050 and to contribute to the zero-pollution ambition as set out in the European Green Deal. This network will be an important enabler for the market uptake of zero- and low-emissions vehicles, vessels and aircraft. For road transport, the European Green Deal sets the objective of having at least 1 million publicly accessible recharging and refuelling stations in place by 2025 that establishes a springboard for the necessary much larger roll-out of such infrastructure until 2030, as projected in the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy. The strategy sets important and ambitious milestones for the ramp up of production, deployment and use of sustainable alternative fuels in all modes of transport by 2030 and 2050, including, where necessary, for the roll-out of needed infrastructure. This report presents the results of the assessment of action taken by Member States in the implementation of Directive (EU) 2014/94 on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure (AFID) and the development of markets for alternative fuels and alternative fuels infrastructure in the Union. It follows the provisions of Article 10(3) of that Directive, which requires the Commission to submit a report on the application of the Directive every three years with effect from 18 November 2020. The reporting draws on an extensive information base. The Commission has made an in-depth assessment of the national implementation reports as received from the Member States under this Directive , building on interactions with Member States in the design of that assessment. The Commission has also carried out an external support study in the context of the ongoing evaluation of that Directive. Moreover, the Commission has updated its report on the state of art on alternative fuels transport systems in the EU. These assessments are published alongside this report. These assessments show that full implementation of planned targets and measures by Member States would lead to an infrastructure roll-out by 2030 that – looking at the aggregated numbers - could potentially support a fleet of alternative fuels vehicles that is in line with projections under a pathway meeting a 40% overall greenhouse gas emission reduction in the EU. However, the current deployment is not leading to a comprehensive and complete network coverage of easy-to-use infrastructure throughout the Union as large differences between Member States’ plans continue to persist, and modes other than road are either excluded or underrepresented. Moreover, the 2030 Climate Target Plan raises the ambition by increasing the 2030 EU greenhouse gas emissions reductions target to 55%, hence requiring a considerably higher increase in the number of zero- and low-emissions vehicles and the appropriate roll-out of infrastructure. This report points to the benefits of stepping up action in the further implementation of the national policy frameworks of Member States and the further development of the policy framework at European level. This finding corresponds to earlier conclusions raised by the Commission in the Communication “Action Plan: towards the broadest use of alternative fuels infrastructure in the EU” and conclusions raised by the European Parliament in its report on deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure. The publication of the in-depth assessments of the individual national implementation reports provides a basis for further discussion on how Member States can support the quick build-up of a sufficient alternative fuels infrastructure. In this context, the synergies between the national recovery and resilience plans under the Next Generation EU recovery instrument and the opportunities linked to an investment agenda for sustainable mobility are apparent. 2. State of play: Technological progress and the development of the markets Since the adoption of the Directive in 2014, the markets for the various alternative fuels have developed differently with respect to vehicle uptake and infrastructure deployment within and between modes. Table 1: Number of alternatively fuelled passenger cars registered 2014 - 2020 in the EU 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Increase 2014 - 2020 Battery Electric 75,067 119,222 164,681 244,231 376,534 616,644 904,262 1105% Plug in Hybrid 56,758 126,032 191,561 254,249 349,181 474,724 755,282 1231% Hydrogen 53 192 362 531 714 1,187 1,492 2715% Compressed Natural Gas 999,044 1,058,992 1,089,701 1,113,714 1.161,118 1.193,806 1,207,069 21% Liquefied Petroleum Gas 6,906,769 7,089,523 7,232,050 7,264,118 7.628,053 7.714,409 7,707,823 12% Total Alternative Fuels Cars 8,037,691 8,393,961 8,678,355 8,876,843 9,515,600 10,000,770 10,575,928 32% Alternative Fuels Cars in % 2.99% 3.12% 3.23% 3.30% 3.59% 3.72% 3.93% Source: European Alternative Fuels Observatory, January 2021 (www.eafo.eu) Compared to the market situation at the time of the adoption of the Directive, the market of electric vehicles has strongly matured, particularly for light-duty electric vehicles and buses (both battery-electric and plug-in hybrid). Especially electric cars have seen a rapid increase in terms of total vehicle registrations and growth in available models in the period 2010-2020. In the 3rd quarter of 2020, shares increased to 9.9% of all car sales, compared to 3% in the year before. While the car stock shares are still low, further acceleration of vehicle uptake is expected, driven also by the need to comply with legal requirements under the CO2 emission performance standards for light-duty vehicles, the Clean Vehicles Directive and the pressure to comply with air quality legislation. Model availability for cars and vans, but also for buses, has strongly improved over the last years. Following technical developments and increases in battery capacity, ranges of electric vehicles are significantly above the average daily driven distance in the EU and enable long distance travel, which is contributing to increased user acceptance. For trucks, maturity of markets has developed at much slower pace since 2014. The stock of vehicles (including retrofitted ones) is still at a very low level. Trucks are now starting to enter the market for distribution trucking, and manufacturers have announced new models (including with longer ranges) to come into the market over the coming years. A further market uptake in this segment is expected until 2025, also in view of the need to comply with the legal requirements of the CO2 emission performance standards for heavy-duty vehicles. Electric buses, and here especially public transport buses in urban areas, have seen a significant uptake and the number of registered buses has more than doubled in 2019. Moreover, many cities have set very ambitious targets for electrifying their bus fleets, pointing at a likely acceleration of this trend. Compared to the market situation at the time of the adoption of the Directive, the market of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has developed with a significant growth rate albeit from a very low starting point. While fuel cell cars, vans and buses are technologically mature, their registration rates remain very low. Model availability of light-duty fuel cell vehicles has made incremental progress only: for example, in 2020, four fuel cell car models were on offer in the EU, but not in all Member States. European OEMs have not announced significant investment into hydrogen fuel cell cars and vans. The situation is slightly better for buses: different European manufacturers have started production and a number of cities and regions have started to deploy hydrogen fuel cell bus fleets. While the market did not record much momentum for trucks, the situation is currently changing. With the new CO2 emissions standards in place, different OEMs are now starting to invest strongly into hydrogen fuel cell truck solutions, in view of their series production for long-distance road haul post 2025. With the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance, the EU is setting up a strong impulse for better coordinating action of market actors through a full value-chain approach that should also elevate the development of the fuel cell trucks market, and furthermore the market for coaches. Compared to the market situation at the time of the adoption of the Directive, the overall market development of natural gas vehicles differs per segment. The technology for natural gas vehicles and components is fully mature for both compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) of both fossil and biological origin. The fleet of passenger cars in 2020 was approx. 1.2 million cars. Vehicle models are for sale in the EU market in all segments. However, the number of brands providing CNG vehicles has contracted in recent years. Natural gas trucks have shown a more steady growth, in particular in the LNG segment. Already before the adoption of the Directive, a fleet of around 7 million LPG vehicles existed in the market. Since the adoption of the Directive, vehicle uptake increased slowly. Three quarters of those vehicles were registered in just two Member States; hence, a strong geographic concentration of those vehicles persists in the EU. Fleets of LPG buses exist in several cities. However, the number of new acquisitions or replacements of LPG buses are decreasing. In addition, renewable liquid fuels and synthetic fuels – including e-fuels – can be produced to meet the current fuel standards for diesel and petrol; they can therefore be distributed through existing infrastructure and used in standard vehicles. Dedicated infrastructure for biofuels (e85) to be used in dual fuel vehicles exists only in a few Member States and registration of such vehicles remains stable at a very low level. A main question regards the potential for future production capacity of sustainable alternative biofuels. In view of feedstock availability, overall efficiency of the production process and overall costs – for both biofuels and synthetic fuels – use of biofuels needs to particularly serve transport modes that are more difficult to decarbonise (aviation, waterborne). Concerning waterborne transport, data availability on the uptake of biofuels, alternatively fuelled vessels and Onshore Power Supply (OPS) for ships at berth is limited. The total number of commissioned LNG ships worldwide was about 300 in 2019. Only half of those ships were in operation. The other half remains on order. The amount of electric vessels (including hybrids) in operation worldwide is similarly low, but has been growing recently: in 2019, 160 ships were in service and a further 104 were under construction. At the end of 2019, around 50 inland and maritime ports in the EU had at least one OPS connection point. Concerning the use of alternative fuels in rail, around 60 percent of the network serving 80 percent of all traffic volume is electrified. First market orders of hydrogen fuel cell trains have started recently. Concerning the use of alternative fuels in aviation, biofuels and e-fuels can already today be blended with kerosene. However, the use of liquid biofuels is still marginal with 0.05% of air transport energy use. Aircraft manufacturers have also started to invest in the development of electric, hybrid and hydrogen aircraft.

3 Implementation of the Directive Transposition Member States had to transpose the Directive by 18 November 2016. There have been delays in the transposition in many Member States. The Commission opened 24 infringement cases for non-transposition in 2017 and 2018. The Commission closed most cases in the course of 2018 and closed the remaining cases in 2019 and 2020. At the end of 2020, there are no open infringement cases against Member States for non-transposition of the Directive. Status of National Policy Frameworks The Directive requires each Member State to adopt a national policy framework (NPF) for the development of the alternative fuels market in the transport sector and the deployment of its relevant infrastructure. In particular, the NPFs had to comprise national targets and objectives for the deployment of alternatives fuels infrastructure, taking into account national, regional and union-wide demand. In addition, Member States had to provide the necessary measures to reach national targets and the objectives set out in the NPFs. Member States had to notify their NPFs to the Commission by 18 November 2016. In its 2017 assessment of the NPFs and in its 2019 update, the Commission concluded that the NPFs are not fully coherent from an EU-wide perspective in terms of the priorities they set. Member States’ ambition with regard to the uptake of alternative fuels and their infrastructure varied significantly. It also concluded that not all NPFs set clear and sufficient targets and objectives, supported by comprehensive measures. Action Plan on Alternative Fuels Infrastructure To support the implementation of NPFs and in accordance with Article 10(6) of the Directive, the Commission adopted an EU Action Plan for Alternative Fuels Infrastructure on 8 November 2017. It supports the establishment of an alternative fuels infrastructure backbone with full coverage of the TEN-T network by 2025, and ramp up of investment into infrastructure. The plan announced an additional support of EUR 800 million from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and NER 300 programme to spur investment. The Action Plan also noted the need to increase the level of policy ambition in Member States plans, particularly regarding infrastructure roll-out in urban and cross-border areas and action on improving use services. Submission of National Implementation Reports The Directive requires that Member States submit to the Commission by 18 November 2019 a national implementation report (NIR) on the execution of its national policy framework (NPF) in the period from submission of the NPF until at least 31 December 2018. These reports shall cover the information listed in Annex I of the Directive, including, where appropriate, relevant argumentation on the level of attainment of the national targets and objectives referred to in Article 3(1). By 1 May 2020, the Commission had received 25 NIRs. By 1 October 2020, the Commission had received the reports from all but one Member State. The findings of the Commission assessment are presented in this report and the Staff Working Document that accompanies this report. Aspects of the Directive that required direct action by the Commission Fuel labelling The Directive requires that Member States shall ensure that relevant, consistent and clear information is provided to consumers on the compatibility of their vehicles with the fuels placed on the market. The supply of information shall be based on the labelling provisions regarding fuel compliance under standards of the European Standardisation Organisations setting the technical specifications of fuels. In that respect the European Commission requested the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (Cenelec) to adopt the corresponding standards to this end. Subsequently, CEN and Cenelec adopted the standard EN 16942 ‘Fuels - Identification of vehicle compatibility - Graphical expression for consumer information’ wich came into force on 12 October 2018 and the standard EN 17186 ‘Identification of vehicles and infrastructures compatibility - Graphical expression for consumer information on EV power supply’ that will come into force on 20 March 2021. Consistent data on the application of those standards in the markets of Member States is limited. The Commission is verifying the situation with Member States. Information up to date suggests that fuel labels are quite commonly applied at fuel stations in Member States. Fuel price comparison The Directive establishes that, when fuel prices are displayed at a fuel station, a comparison between the relevant unit prices should be displayed for information purposes, in particular for natural gas and hydrogen. The Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/732 of 17 May 2018 enacts a common methodology for alternative fuels unit price comparison. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Member States agreed to the Commission proposal to delay the date of application of the Regulation until 7 December 2020. Under the methodology adopted, fuel prices are expressed as amounts of applicable currency per 100 km. The display of the comparison of the fuel prices at the fuel stations should be based on transparent samples of passenger cars that are comparable, at least in view of their weight and their power. A Programme Support Action (PSA) under the CEF issued recommendations for a harmonised implementation of the provision by Member States, including when making use of digital tools.

Data accessibility The Directive sets out that data indicating the geographic location of the refuelling and recharging points accessible to the public are available on an open and non-discriminatory basis to all users. To assist Member States, a PSA under the CEF was established with 15 participating Member States. It focuses on a format for e-mobility identification codes for charging point operators (CPOs) and e-mobility service providers (EMSPs), laying down the foundations for a structure cross-referencing exchange of information among Member States. It provides suggestions on how Member States can develop and implement their national IT infrastructure from which the data will be gathered and made available through the National Access Points (NAPs) under Directive (EU) 2010/40 on Intelligent Transport Systems. Standardisation of alternative fuels infrastructure The Directive was supplemented and amended by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1745. The Regulation sets out the technical specifications applying to recharging points for L-category motor vehicles, shore-side electricity supply for inland waterway vessels, hydrogen supply for road transport and natural gas supply for road and waterborne transport. It amends Annex II of the Directive by specifying standards that were recommended by CEN and Cenelec in response to a standardisation request by the Commission. Action to respond to Annex II requirements regarding technical specifications for wireless recharging points for motor vehicles, battery swapping for motor vehicles and recharging points for electric buses is still outstanding. However, technical specifications for wireless recharging points and recharging points for electric buses will be subject to planned Delegated Regulations in 2021. 4 Analysis of Actions taken by Member States The Directive requires Member States to set targets for alternative fuels infrastructure and develop corresponding measures for reaching those targets under their national policy frameworks. While the Directive clearly specifies the overall needs for road infrastructure and ports, it does not provide a common methodology to inform target setting and measure development. The assessment shows that there has been progress in the quantity and quality of data provided in most NIRs compared to the NPFs. However, many reports do not fully and satisfactorily address the reporting requirements of the Directive. There is still significant divergence among Member States concerning target setting and measure description. This divergence aggravates a coherent assessment of Member States’ ambition towards the development of a network of alternative fuels infrastructure in the EU. Member State estimates on vehicle uptake and targets for infrastructure deployment An aggregation of Member State vehicle estimates and infrastructure targets under the NIRs at the EU level shows that these are slightly more ambitious compared to those under the NPFs in 2016. Significant differences between Member States continue to exist. Member States estimate a rapid uptake of electric vehicles, albeit with very strong regional differences. Member State projections suggest that there could be around 2.5 million electric vehicles in 2020, more than 7 million in 2025 and more than 30 million in 2030. While at the end of 2020 around 1.8 million electric vehicles were registered, many Member States have revised the ambition on targets and corresponding measures. They are likely to support an accelerated vehicle uptake and infrastructure deployment in those Member States post 2020. For 2030, the estimates would represent an overall share of electric cars of around 15% of the total current car stock. However, at single Member State level, planning and ambition for 2030 ranges from less than 1% to more than 40% of electric cars in the total car stock. At the end of 2020 around 213,000 publicly accessible rechargers were deployed in the EU, of which approx. 10% were fast chargers (>22 kW and up to 350 kW). This is higher than the aggregated target of Member States of more than 180,000 recharging points by 2020. Most Member States with reported targets plan a recharging point to vehicle ratio of around 1 to 12 for 2030. Using this ratio also for Member States that have not reported a target would suggest that Member States currently target a total number of recharging points of 2.7 million in 2030. However, the distribution of those recharging points is expected to be very uneven across Europe with gaps in the network expected especially in Southern and Eastern Europe where large parts of the TEN-T core network do not have recharging points installed every 60 km. With respect to electric vehicles and their infrastructure, 2019 and 2020 saw a much stronger increase in electric vehicle registrations than in publicly accessible recharging infrastructure deployment. This trend continued in 2020. In fact, in 2019 electric vehicle registrations increased by 50% and in 2020 by 52% in comparison to the previous year, while the increase in recharging infrastructure was only 38% and 30% respectively. While the deployment of faster recharging technology can help to address part of the increased vehicle uptake, continuation of this trend would still imply a serious risk that infrastructure deployment will not go hand in hand with electric vehicle uptake in the years to come. This could lead to important shortcomings that can undermine the overall uptake of those vehicles. The 16 Member States that provide estimates on CNG vehicles suggest a doubling of vehicles by 2025 and a further increase by 2030 in those Member States. However, even with that increase and taking into account the existing vehicle stock of Member States that did not report growth estimates, CNG vehicles are expected to represent only a share of around 1% of the total vehicle stock in the EU by 2030. The existing infrastructure of approx. 3,600 refuelling points in 2020 seems largely sufficient to cover the future demand. The same is true for current LPG infrastructure as Member States do not estimate a relevant increase of the current fleet by 2030. Estimates by the 11 Member States that reported on LNG suggest that the LNG heavy-duty vehicle fleet could increase significantly by 2030. However, even with that increase, those vehicles will still represent only approximately 1% of EU’s truck fleet. In 2020, there were around 310 LNG refuelling points in the EU that served the main TEN-T transport corridors. While some gaps persist, the existing refuelling points already largely provides a sufficient network connectivity. Hydrogen fuel cell mobility is still a niche market. Some Member States report great ambition with respect to uptake of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Those ambitions could lead to around 300,000 vehicles in the EU by 2030. However, around half of the Member States have not provided any estimates and many Member States do not seem to have a hydrogen strategy in place yet. In 2020, 125 hydrogen stations were in operation while Member States’ targets point to around 600 stations by 2030. Since around half of the Member States do not plan any infrastructure, current implementation of the Directive would result in limited connectivity for hydrogen vehicles in the EU. Data provided by Member States on maritime and inland waterway vessels estimates and infrastructure deployment was very scarce. It does not allow drawing a coherent assessment of the current and planned development of LNG bunkering and Onshore Power Supply across the EU. Directive 2014/94/EU does not contain specific provisions covering rail and aviation. Policy and legal measures on national level

Member States have reported a variety of measures to support the uptake of alternatively fuelled vehicles and achieve their infrastructure targets. All Member States have implemented one or more legal and policy measures to promote electric vehicles. Around three quarters of Member States also established measures to promote electric vehicles and related infrastructure in public transport. More than half of the Member States also reported legal and policy measures to support the uptake of vehicles and infrastructure deployment in the areas of natural gas and hydrogen. However, only a few Member States reported on specific measures in relation to waterborne transport. According to the limited information from 22 NIRs, Member States allocated a total of around €6.7 billion during the period 2016-2019. Budget allocations among Member States varied greatly from only €3 million to close to €2.7 billion. Member States directed the largest share to the implementation of various policy support measures (for example support of vehicle purchase and infrastructure deployment), followed by support for research, technological development and demonstration, and manufacturing support. The largest share of Member States’ budgetary support went to electric vehicles and recharging infrastructure, followed by hydrogen for road transport and support for natural gas for road transport. The amount allocated to waterborne transport was much more limited and below 5% of the total financing. On average, the measures reported by Member States seem to be suited to accelerate vehicle uptake and infrastructure deployment in line with the overall vehicle and infrastructure estimates and targets set by Member States. This is particularly true for electric vehicles and their infrastructure. 5 Assessment of the effects of the Directive Article 10 (3) of the Directive requires reporting on its effect on the uptake of alternative fuels vehicles and the deployment of the related infrastructure. This chapter summarises findings of the work carried out under the ongoing evaluation of the Directive. Findings reported here do not pre-empt any conclusion of the evaluation of the Directive, which is planned for publication by summer 2021 and will present in more detail the results of the evaluation in terms deployment and infrastructure quality, including with regards to user information. Uptake of alternatively fuelled vehicles and deployment of infrastructure The analysis has shown that the directive had a considerable impact in combination with other legislative initiatives such as the Regulations on CO2 emission performance standards for light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive on both, the uptake of alternatively fuelled vehicles and their infrastructure. The share of alternatively fuelled vehicles in total vehicle sales in 2020 is slighter higher with the Directive in place than in a hypothetical situation without the Directive. This positive impact of the Directive increases significantly towards 2030 when the sales of zero- and low-emission vehicles will further increase. The Directive also directly impacted the number of electric recharging points which is projected to be around twice as high in 2030 compared to a situation without the Directive. A similar impact is expected for hydrogen and LNG refuelling points. For CNG infrastructure, a lower impact of the Directive is expected, as a network of infrastructure was already available before the Directive was adopted. The impact of the Directive on the uptake of alternative fuels and onshore power supply for shipping and inland waterways is difficult to assess. From available data it can be concluded that investments in alternative fuels infrastructure for LNG bunkering and onshore power supply (OPS) in ports have been limited in most Member States. However, especially in those areas the Directive is likely to have an important impact closer to the target dates for their deployment in 2025 or 2030. Effects of the Directive in terms of infrastructure quality The Directive also had a considerable impact on the interoperability of alternative fuels infrastructure. However, a number of shortcomings still prevail, that make it cumbersome for users to travel in a seamless manner across borders, specifically with electric vehicles. In order to ensure interoperability, the Directive and subsequent Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1745 set technical specifications for the physical connection between the recharging/refuelling point and the vehicle. The ability to adopt delegated acts under the Directive has helped to transpose technical specifications into European law in a targeted manner, building on the expertise of European Standardisation Organisations. However, the Directive is not well suited to address the need for further technical standards regarding communication interfaces, for recharging heavy-duty vehicles and vessels, as well as for methanol and ammonia bunkering, refuelling liquid hydrogen and ensuring full interoperability in the hydrogen refuelling ecosystem. The Directive aims at establishing an easy-to-use infrastructure. This objective has only been partially achieved. Weaknesses in the user experience, specifically in the area of cross border electro-mobility, can be summarised as follows. Easy access to information on the location and availability of all recharging and refuelling points is essential. However, this is currently not always the case. Such data are not systematically available in many Member States. Data quality varies, which is not always supportive to the development of comprehensive new user services. While the Directive requires transparent prices, many users still have limited information on the final price of a recharging session. Prices are often not clearly displayed at a recharging point and are often also not accessible through apps. In addition, many different price components exist which makes it difficult to compare end user prices. The Directive sets provisions on ad hoc payment to ensure that no user gets stranded due to difficulties of payment. However, different digital solutions have emerged in the markets. A simple unified ad hoc payment method (such as credit/debit bank card payment) across Europe is not available. Contract based recharging does not work uniformly across the Union, as not all electro-mobility service providers or roaming platforms offer their services at each recharging point. There is an increasing number of consumer complaints about lack of price transparency and user-friendliness of the recharging infrastructure, particularly for payments, which is considered to be a barrier specifically to smooth longer-distance trips. With respect to the integration of electric vehicles into the electricity system, the current provisions of the Directive ensure alignment of the rules between the electro-mobility and the electricity markets. However, future mass vehicle uptake will require smart and bidirectional charging to ensure an efficient integration of electric vehicles into the electricity system. The recent recast of the Electricity Directive (2019/944/EU) already provides a framework for the development of competitive electricity services that – if transposed swiftly and correctly in Member States – would lay down the foundations to allow smart charging and vehicle-to-grid services to develop in the market, especially if smart charging infrastructure was deployed. Smart charging infrastructure includes the recharging point, the communication between the recharging point and the vehicle and the vehicle itself. However, the Directive at current does little to support smart charging infrastructure and for facilitating that smart and bidirectional recharging services can be developed. NPFs and NIRs of Member States contain little information on this topic.