MEPs have dealt another blow to the EU's Green Deal by softening car emissions targets, a move Euronews links directly to the political pressure that has built up around the file. The reversal comes with an awkward footnote: several critics have long argued that the EU lacks the charging infrastructure needed for a broad uptake of electric vehicles — an argument that carries particular weight across Central and Eastern Europe's emerging EV markets. Looser targets may buy the industry time, but they leave the infrastructure question wide open.
That argument found fresh ammunition this week in Ireland, where The Irish Times reports that the cost of public EV charging has now overtaken petrol and diesel. By way of comparison, filling a family diesel with a 1.6-litre engine typically costs about €110 — and delivers roughly 950 kilometres of range. When plugging in on the public network costs more than filling the tank, the running-cost case that underpins so much of the EV sales pitch starts to wobble, especially for price-sensitive buyers across the region.
The economics of the charging business itself are under strain too. In a silent transaction, an automaker has sold its EV fast chargers to a local player and exited the European market altogether, InsideEVs reports. The quiet nature of the deal speaks volumes: even manufacturers with deep pockets and a captive customer base appear unwilling to keep carrying European charging networks on their own books.
