Europe does not have enough charge points for electric vehicles and only one in eight of those available work fast, the continent's major car brands are warning.
"The lack of fast-charging options is a major roadblock for potential electric vehicle buyers," according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), which describes itself as "a voice for the auto industry" and counts household names such as BMW, Renault, Rolls-Royce and Volvo among its founders.
Not only do drivers usually have to hang around for an electric car to charge, they can be caught in a catch-22 situation by sometimes having to queue for their turn to use the slow-burn chargers, which are usually AC (alternative current) devices, not the DC (direct current) variant needed to quickly refill a battery.
"If we want to convince Europeans to make the switch to electric vehicles, charging should be as easy as refuelling is today," said Sigrid de Vries, the association’s director general.
Manufacturers believe getting past so-called "range anxiety" - the fear that an electric car battery will go flat before it can be recharged - is key to persuading drivers to ditch petrol and diesel cars.
"People need easy access to chargers in their daily environment, and these charging points should be quick and easy to use, without having to wait in long queues," de Vries added.
"A dense network of public DC fast chargers is critical in facilitating long-distance travel and mitigating range anxiety," according to the ACEA, which recently warned that the EU will need an eight-fold expansion of charging points by the end of the decade if the “mass adoption” of electric cars is to come about.
Electric cars are typically more expensive than other vehicles, though in recent years a blend of wider inflationary pressures, including for fuel, along with environment-related taxes, have pushed up running costs for petrol and diesel cars.
Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturers have developed electric models that are less pricey than those made by US and European rivals - market shifts that in part have prompted the US and EU to recently impose tariffs on imported Chinese cars.
