Suitable law-based location selection of high-power electric vehicles charging stations on the TEN-T core network for sustainability: a case of Poland

Abstract

With the upcoming implementation of the amendment to Regulation (EU) 2019/631 of the European Parliament and of the Council, from 2035 there will be a ban on the registration of new vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICE) in the Member States of the European Union (EU). Consequently, changes in the transportation sector, resulting from the increasing use of electric vehicles, appear to be inevitable. According to the adopted legal acts, the European Union Member States will be obliged to develop, among others, a charging infrastructure and access to public charging stations for electric vehicles. As a result, there will be a need to ensure a significant increase in the power and the number of charging stations and to determine their appropriate location. The article presents the challenges faced by charging station operators and difficulties related to the further development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Poland. The still poorly developed public charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, especially in service areas located along the main communication routes, remains the main obstacle to the development of electromobility. In the context of legal, financial, technological, and organizational challenges, the problem of the proper distribution of electric vehicle charging stations along the main communication routes is therefore of particular importance. The aim of the article is to present a new, proprietary method for determining the location of electric vehicle charging stations in Poland within the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), which considers objective location factors: adherence to AFIR requirements, the specificity of the Polish power system and existing parking infrastructure. As a result of using the developed method, a list of 188 recommended locations for the construction of electric vehicle charging stations in Poland along the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) was created. It has been shown in this way that the use of the presented method enables the suitable determination of the location of electric vehicle charging stations along transport routes, considering legal, financial, and technological requirements, which will significantly facilitate the operation of zero-emission transport.