AVERE- The European Association for Electromobility would like to welcome the opportunity to be able to comment on the report published by the Portuguese Competition Authority.
We have taken note of the preliminary report of the Estudo concorrè‚ncia e mobilidade elétrica em Portugal and wish to express our agreement with the intention of the recommendations made to the Portuguese government to make fundamental changes to the Portuguese recharging network, to improve the current system in benefit of BEV users.
AVERE recognizes the value of the national platform created by Portugal at a time when e-mobility was still developing on a regional scale. Today, AVERE believes that the e-mobility market is becoming an EU-wide market, which should enable recharging stations to be easily deployed and used throughout the EU. To enable this development and transnational mobility, the European Commission and its members have adopted a binding European recharging regulation (AlternaHve Fuels Infrastructure RegulaHon - AFIR) which applies directly in all countries and replaces existing laws. This European recharging regulation will solve many of the problems raised in the report and will enable the Portuguese system to be part of a European network of recharging stations and services.
We believe that a consistent interpretation of the AFIR across different countries is key to ensuring that the pace of deployment and investments in recharging infrastructure can increase to the benefit of completion with a desired result to the end-consumer. We are appreciative of the intention of the CompeHHon Authority to remove entry barriers into the Portuguese market and encourage compeHHon, to improve the experience of using and adopHon to electric vehicles.
The current regulatory framework requires each CPO and/or MSP to enter into an agreement with Mobi.E – and thereby granting access to its charge points to other CPOs/MSPs that are part of the system and at the same time, gaining access to all charge points of such other CPOs/MSPs – constitutes a mandatory e-roaming regulation, which is incompatible with AFIR regulations (see question 5.1 of the drak EU Commission Paper “QuesHons and Answers – RegulaHon on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure (EU 2023/1804)). The current system in Portugal is also putting high entry-barriers for MSPs to enter the Portuguese market, particularly by requiring a guarantee provision or a bank deposit to cover 4-months-worth of charging revenues in the market.
AVERE therefore advises the Portuguese government to:
- Align conflicting parts of Portuguese law with European law, as this will help to guarantee legal certainty, which will encourage investment in Portugal.
- Ensure that companies are able to invest and deploy in compliance with applicable European legislation, and are not hampered by existing incompatibilities with Portuguese legislation (s) during the alignment process, as the transition to sustainable mobility cannot wait.
AVERE looks forward to the next few years, during which we expect the quality of recharging in Europe to improve still further, as the effect of European regulation creates a truly European network that is easy and affordable to use for all EU citizens. We advise all European countries, including Portugal, to align their laws as quickly as possible, so that legal uncertainty does not slow down the deployment of recharging infrastructures in Europe.