How ready are European countries for electric vehicles

Compared to last year, the overall maturity of the EV market has increased significantly in almost all markets (by an average of 9% across the board). More and better government incentives, growth in charging facilities and improvements in the total cost of ownership compared to internal combustion engines (ICEs) have all led to a significant rise in the number of EV registrations.

Between them, the countries scored a total of 48 additional points in the index. Here are the key results by country:

• The Top 3 in the EV Readiness Index remains the same as last year: Norway #1, the Netherlands #2 and the United Kingdom #3 (jointly with Austria).
• Austria gained six additional points compared to last year, due to an improved charging network and much higher number of EV registrations. This significantly increased readiness puts it in joint third position with the UK.
• Greece has improved the most, rising from 16 points to 23 points in the index. This is driven by an increased EV market share and lower TCO for electric vehicles. Greece almost scored maximum points in the EV TCO index (with only the UK scoring better on the cost component), highlighting the affordability of EVs in Greece.
• Sweden (up 5 points) and Belgium (up 4 points) have both increased their scores significantly thanks to improved charging infrastructure and more favourable government incentives for EVs.
• The most mature markets (Norway and the Netherlands) show a slight improvement in government incentives.

• EV maturity score

One of the key factors in EV maturity is the actual uptake of EV registrations in a country. The Nordics and Western Europe show the highest maturity in the uptake of EV registrations. Austria and Greece show the biggest increase in EV maturity compared to 2021, followed by the UK. In general, maturity has increased in all countries, except for Hungary.

• Charging maturity score

Overall, the charging infrastructure receives the lowest score out of all categories in the EV Readiness Index, indicating that charging maturity is becoming the bottleneck factor holding back the EV transition. Even markets such as Germany and the UK, which are at the top of the index, score poorly on charging maturity. There are some signs of optimism, since countries like Sweden, Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland have improved their charging maturity compared to 2021.

• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) score

EV uptake is primarily determined by the affordability of driving an EV within the specific market. The index shows that many countries provide strong government incentives such as lower driver taxation and thus a lower monthly ownership cost for EVs. This demonstrates that TCO parity with ICEs has already been achieved in many European countries. EVs have become more affordable across Europe overall, with southern European countries like Portugal, Spain and Greece as well as Romania showing the highest increase in TCO maturity compared to 2021. Poland has suffered the biggest decrease in TCO maturity, partly due to relatively high driver taxation.

• The availability of government incentives

Government incentives are a proven methodology to stimulate the uptake of electric driving both on the supply side and the demand side. Compared to last year, several new and improved incentives have been added in many European countries. However, in Norway and the Netherlands – the most EV-prepared markets – the incentives have remained the same or been reduced.

Around 20% of global emissions come from road transport and approximately half of the vehicles on the road today are registered to corporate organisations, so fleet electrification can clearly make a significant contribution to tackling climate change. Corporates therefore have an important role to play in leading the transition to zero-emission mobility. Moreover, switching to a zero-emission fleet is one of the easiest ways for businesses to reduce their overall emission footprints as part of sustainability targets.

For many companies, the big question is ‘How can we make the transition?’. In that case, LeasePlan is here to help you. We introduced ‘sustainability’ and ‘zero-emission’ into the fleet industry’s vocabulary back in 2017. Since then, we have focused on developing a complete, end-to-end solution by providing the right e-vehicles anytime and anywhere, as well as charging solutions and implementation services. The LeasePlan EV specialists can advise you on the best transition strategy in every market.