ChargeUp Europe to lobby for charging industry

Allego, ChargePoint and EVBox have formed the ‘ChargeUp Europe’ e-mobility alliance to accelerate the development of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in Europe.

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The ChargeUp Europe alliance sees itself as a political lobby organisation and wants to lobby the EU for investments in charging infrastructure and removing market barriers. The aim is to simplify the introduction of electric vehicles and make the experience for electric car drivers smoother, according to EVBox.

To ensure that infrastructure development keeps pace with the increasing number of electric vehicles and allows for a shift to electric transport, ChargeUp Europe will create the right market conditions that encourage investment and create a consumer-oriented, open market model for charging infrastructure in Europe. However, concrete demands were not formulated in the short communications of the participating companies.

“Against the backdrop of a highly relevant policy agenda, we believe it is the right time for a dedicated voice to represent the charging infrastructure sector in Europe,” says Christopher Burghardt, ChargePoint’s European Managing Director. Kristof Vereenooghe, CEO of EVBox and Everon, adds: “This is the first time that the entire EV charging infrastructure sector can speak with one clear voice”.

“ChargeUp Europe represents a unique opportunity for the sector to come together and speed up the development and roll-out of charging infrastructure across Europe,” said Mathieu Bonnet, CEO of Allego, “We call on all other like-minded partners to join this initiative.” ChargeUp Europe is already finding and admitting new members and writes ChargeUp Europe on its homepage but does not mention any names. A kick-off event in Brussels initially planned for the summer. It is not yet clear whether this can be held because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Update 03 May 2020: Despite the ongoing difficulties, ChargeUp Europe has found its first new (non-founding) member: GreenWay, the e-mobility provider and charging point operator founded in Slovakia in 2011.
As both EMP and CPO, GreenWay says its operations across the region were “growing rapidly” by building a “comprehensive, nationwide electric vehicle charging infrastructure” in Poland and Slovakia. The network utilises GreenWayÄs own charging points as well as chargers of a large number of business partners.

Update 01 Juli 2020: ChargeUp Europe has just announced more new members: After GreenWay recently became a member, Fastned and Evway have also joined the alliance. “The Alliance is the perfect place for us to benchmark our activities within a group of companies sharing their best practices to promote the growth of electric mobility. As a representative of Southern Europe, we are looking forward to contributing to ChargeUp Europe in pursuing open competition, open protocols and non-discriminatory business practices,” says Franco Barbieri, co-founder of the Italian CPO Evway.

ChargeUp Europe has also published a position paper with recommendations for revising the EU Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive (AFID). In twelve points, the lobby organisation calls for transparency and market control, among other things, and the prioritisation of interoperability and open networks. One should follow a “consumer-oriented approach”.

Update 06 July 2020: The Austrian eMobility specialist has-to-be is the seventh member of the charging infrastructure lobby organisation ChargeUp Europe. “has·to·be’s vision for climate-neutral mobility and our commitment to work with others in the industry to accelerate the growth of EVs fit in perfectly with the aims and values of ChargeUp Europe,” says CEO Martin Klässner.

Update 06 August 2020: The energy supplier Energias de Portugal (EDP) is now the eighth member of the charging infrastructure lobby organisation ChargeUp Europe, which was founded in April. According to its own figures, the Lisbon-based company is active in the entire electricity value chain and has a 66 per cent share of renewable energies.

“Sustainability is part of our DNA, and ChargeUp Europe is the perfect place to address some of EDP’s key priorities, namely ensuring the availability of electric vehicles and accelerating the rollout of charging infrastructure,” says Vera Pinto Pereira, CEO of EDP Commercial. “We want to guarantee a seamless charging experience for people all over Europe via EU harmonization and interoperability”. In total, EDP is active in 19 countries, including Spain and Brazil, and its home market of Portugal.

Update 26 October 2020: ChargeUp Europe just announced another prominent member: The French energy group Total is joining the alliance as its ninth member.

“The EU has been a pioneer on the path toward carbon neutrality while Total is pledging to achieve net-zero emissions in Europe by 2050 or earlier,” says Pierre Clasquin, EV Charge Vice-President at Total, “Like all electromobility players on the continent, we, therefore, play a key role. In this context of a gradual switch towards Net Zero mobility, our ambition is to operate 150,000 EV charging points by 2025.” According to Clasquin, Total hopes that joining ChargeUp Europe will make it easier to implement measures to promote electromobility investment at the European level.

Update 30 November 2020: The Dortmund-based charging station manufacturer Compleo has joined as the tenth member. Through his work with ChargeUp Europe, Georg Griesemann, Co-CEO of Compleo, wants to help ensure that EU policy and legislation puts the consumer at the heart of the ecosystem for charging electric vehicles and to build an open, interoperable and secure ecosystem for charging throughout the EU. “We believe in climate-friendly mobility shortly,” said Griesemann. “The turn towards low-emission and e-mobility can only succeed if we collaborate across borders.”

Update 14 April 2021: The charging infrastructure industry organisation ChargeUp Europe continues its expansion with mighty new member ABB coming on board. The Swiss Group entered the e-mobility space in 2010 and today claims sales of over 400,000 EV chargers, of which 20,000 offer DC fast-charging across more than 85 markets.

ABB is the 14th industry member for ChargeUp Europe and joins another two knowledge partners and one ecosystem provider.

The initiative has been striving to become an association, and we recently spoke to President Christopher Burghardt here. He is pushing for a dedicated Charging Infrastructure Regulation (CIR) in Brussels, ahead of the AFID revision. ChargeUp Europe wants to see an industry-specific regulation that lays the groundwork for charging infrastructure expansion according to demand.

Additional reporting by Nora Manthey, London.

evbox.com, chargepoint.com, allego.eu, chargeupeurope.eu, chargeupeurope.eu (update GreenWay), chargeupeurope.eu (update 01 July), chargeupeurope.eu (update 06 July), chargeupeurope.eu (update 06 August), chargeupeurope.eu (update 26 October), chargeupeurope.eu (update 30 November), chargeupeurope.eu (update April, ABB)