Slovakia releases €46 million for ‘E-Mobility Action Plan’

The government of Slovakia is freeing a total of €46 million for a nationwide charging infrastructure roll-out. The new budgets will include 100% grants for high-power chargers and funding of slower charging stations in municipalities and workplaces.

The Slovakian Electric Vehicle Association (SEVA) detailed the budget in an email to us and expects applications to open this month.

The most significant programme, with a budget of €30 million, is to install an ultra-rapid charging network along motorways. The Slovakian government also reserved ten million euros in grants for promoting the development of charging infrastructure in rural regions and six million euros for companies.

This means Slovak municipalities, companies, and expressway locations will all be eligible for public electric vehicle charging infrastructure financing.

In detail, the HPC program aims to establish more than 60 charging hubs with 230 charge points so that each site will boost 4-6 ultra-fast charging stations of at least 150 kW. According to SEVA, the government also specifies at least a 1 MW connection to each hub so that they can handle multiple, high-power rapid charging sessions and grow to accommodate even more.

The State will provide 100% grant funding for the installation and operation of the hardware and the grid connection to the location. Charge point operators will receive concessions to operate the sites. Providers and operators will be selected via open tenders, which are planned to be announced in 2023.

As for the charge hubs in municipalities, towns with populations over 7,000 people (over 100 cities in Slovakia) can apply to the State for their share of the 10-million-fund. This scheme will seek to primarily deploy AC charging points (11 kW), with some DC 50 kW.
The maximum grant for a slow AC charger is €3,000 per connection, so €6,000 per charging station with two plugs. DC chargers delivering 50 kW can be funded with up to €29,000. Chargers with up to 150 kW may receive up to €130,000. The variety of grants makes it difficult to predict how many chargers the government expects to add to this budget. Slovakia currently has 1,300 public charging points available today. Expect more details to come out this month, with applications best being prepared as you read.

The same is true for the final element of the Slovak E-mobility Action Plan, the grant program for companies. SEVA is closely consulting with the Ministry about the conditions in detail and how to apply but hopes these will be announced next month. So far, the six-million-program will see Slovakia provide up to 50% of the funding for companies to deploy public AC chargers 11kW and DC 50 kW charging points.

These investments will be complemented by a series of regulatory reforms designed to remove some obstacles to deploying these stations, adds SEVA. “Taken together, these initiatives represent a substantial, strategic set of investments into public charging infrastructure in Slovakia in locations and sectors where they will have a big impact on the e-mobility transition,” said Patrik Krizansky, Director of SEVA. Founded in 2012, the Slovak Electric Vehicle Association represents 39 local members and partners, technology and hardware companies, charging infrastructure operators, the automotive industry, utilities and energy industry players, and others.

The initiatives form part of Slovakia’s ‘Recovery and Resilience Plan’ worth €6.3 billion, which the European Commission approved in July 2021.

The country had released a subsidy scheme for plug-in vehicles in 2017 and reissued it in 2019. Today’s statement made no mention of Slovakia having continued the program.

Source: info via email.