Forget 8 out of 10 Cats, Try >9 out of 10 Charges - The Key Insight from ChargeUp Europe's State of the Industry 2025
A statistical anomaly: Gus is 1 out of 1 million, and he knows how EVs charge
Having played a part in forming ChargeUK with industry pals, we were very much cognisant of the progress that ChargeUp Europe were making, not least because the likes of Tanya Sinclair was fundamental to each trade body (side note: please do check out Hexagon, specialising in trade association optimisation and strategy). While they had a wider remit, and a very different governmental machine to influence, compared to ChargeUK, they were a useful proof of concept when seeking buy-in from our assorted decision makers.
To that end I like to keep an eye on their output, and this year’s “State of the Industry 2025" report is well worth a look. I would summarise the takeaways thusly:
EV Market Continues to Grow
Europe is generally a little way behind the UK, but it has likely reached a tipping point, with 11 million EVs already on EU roads, representing 4% of all cars. The market grew 52% year-on-year from 2016-2024, with 1 in 5 new cars sold in 2024 being electric. By 2035, EVs are projected to make up around 30% of the entire EU fleet.
However, there are concerns about German EV sales sharply declining after withdrawal of purchasing subsidies, and there are warnings about regulatory “flexibilities” for OEMs having a slowing effect on the transition - just as in the UK.
Charging Infrastructure Expansion
Public infrastructure has expanded rapidly, reaching 950,000 charging points across the EU-27, exceeding regulatory requirements by 4 times. High-power charging is accelerating, with some countries seeing 400%+ growth rates.
Technology Evolution
Charging is getting faster in the DC space, and smarter, particularly at home. High-power charging (≥150kW) deployment is accelerating across Europe, while smart charging solutions are maturing, with 480 smart tariffs now available (up from 139 in 2022), helping optimise grid usage and reduce costs.
Heavy-Duty Transport Emerging
Electric trucks are gaining momentum with 25,000 electric trucks currently on European roads, projected to reach over 1 million by 2035 - a non-trivial impact on local grid demand. Battery electric technology is now seen as the dominant zero-emission solution for heavy-duty vehicles - something that was not necessarily expected a decade ago (#hydrogensoufflé).
Economic Impact
The industry contributed €15.3 billion to the European economy in 2024 and created 54,000 jobs. This is projected to reach €94 billion in value and 185,000 jobs by 2035.
Key Challenges
Grid connections remain a significant bottleneck
Need for policy stability and predictable regulatory frameworks
Corporate fleets are underutilising electrification potential compared to private buyers (only 12.4% vs 13.8% private adoption)
The report concludes that Europe's electric transition is "irreversible" but requires continued policy support, infrastructure investment, and industry collaboration to reach its full potential.
But, the key insight is:
92% of all charging happens privately (residential, workplace, or depots)
Public charging is a fundamental requirement of the charging ecosystem, it will become more important as the significant minority of drivers without off-street parking drive EVs, if we don’t provide it we simply can’t achieve mass adoption, there are big economic opportunities for those that get it right, there are key learnings to be absorbed from experience in this sector thus far, and we need governments to make adjustments to enable timely and cost effective rollout.
BUT - even if private charging falls from 92%, public charging is only ever going to be a minority of charging. When we bring to mind what charging infrastructure means, yes we do need to picture some big DC hubs (both in public and in some depot applications), a healthy slab of destination charging, but we need to be thinking that “charging infrastructure” primarily means vast networks of decentralised, connected smart chargers.
From this flows the realisation that EV and their chargers are (becoming) grid assets. While EV charging represents only 0.6% of total EU electricity demand today (rising to just 3.5% by 2035), smart charging can reduce grid load (power) by approximately one-third and help integrate renewable energy, which already makes up 47% of EU electricity generation.
Even without bi-directional charging - and that is now making its first commercially promising steps in the critical AC space - the demand side response potential of this resource is already highly significant and will only grow, particularly as we rely on more and more intermittent generation.
Conclusion
Quantitative markers like this 92% insight reveal a fundamental shift happening right now - from thinking about charging as infrastructure deployment to thinking about it as distributed energy management. Those who grasp this reality, and evolve their various business models towards it are likely to reap material commercial benefits from the EV transition.
This means Charge Point Operators (CPOs) deploying their networks with strategic prudence, property developers/owners sitting on potential goldmines of parking spaces, energy companies rethinking their customer relationships, fleet operators who could own virtual power plants, tech companies building the orchestration layer, and governments needing to redesign policy frameworks around this new distributed energy landscape.
RCP Ltd
If you're wrestling with how the EV transition reshapes your business' fundamentals - whether that's CPOs, property, energy, technology, or public policy - these aren't just operational questions anymore. They're strategic inflection points that could define competitive advantage (or policy effectiveness) for the next decade.
That's exactly the kind of challenge that Rapid Charge Paradox (RCP) Ltd specialises in tackling. Get in touch if you'd like to explore what the 92% reality means for your specific business model or policy framework.
