A preliminary agreement was reached on Monday, March 27. The AFIR regulation is part of the Fit for 55, published in July 2021. It aims to ensure a sufficient network of charging and refueling infrastructure for road vehicles and ships in the EU to reduce the carbon footprint of European transportation.
The decarbonization of transportation remains key to achieving the European Union’s 2050 climate neutrality targets. Accelerating the transition to the use of low- and zero-emission vehicles, including BEVs and FCEVs, is essential for the sector to meet these goals. The technological feasibility of the vehicles is proven, and they are available on a commercial scale. However, their uptake will not be possible and cost-effective without extensive and widely available charging and refueling infrastructure. That’s why an AFIR regulation was included in the 2021 Fit for 55 frameworks to set mandatory specific targets for member states to meet in terms of implementing charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure for cars, vans, and trucks, as well as ships.
According to information provided by the European Commission, the preliminary agreement adopted on Tuesday will be subject to formal approval by the co-legislators. The Council will forward the content to member state representatives for formal adoption.
According to the EC’s original proposal, among its main objectives were:
- providing infrastructure for charging and refueling road vehicles or ships with alternative fuels,
- implementing alternatives by which moored and standing vessels do not keep their engines running,
- full interoperability within the EU and easy access to the use of alternative infrastructure.
As Hydrogen Europe points out the regulation is to provide for the construction of at least one hydrogen gas refueling station (HRS) every 200 km of the TEN-T core network by the end of 2030, and at least one hydrogen refueling station at each urban node. The stations are to have a capacity of 1 ton of hydrogen per day for all modes of road transport. Member states have been required to submit a plan by 2027 to achieve the above[1].
Significantly, the agreed parameters are less ambitious than those proposed as recently as last October by the European Parliament. As a result, they may be insufficient from the perspective of the needs of a growing market, REPowerEU’s goals, and the construction of an EU-wide transportation network. At the time, MEPs proposed setting minimum mandatory national targets for the deployment of alternative fuel infrastructure, with member states to submit a plan to achieve them by 2024. According to the adopted text, it was proposed to build at least one hydrogen refueling station every 100 km along major roads in the EU, instead of the original 150 km proposed by the European Commission in 2021. What’s more, this goal was planned to be achieved by 2028 instead of the previously indicated 2031[2]. The current wording of the regulation can thus hardly be called sufficient, but the continuation of efforts to create a proper hydrogen infrastructure network can be optimistic. Market representatives, however, are hoping for a targeted strengthening of the proposed provisions in 2026.
AFIR: Developed alternative fuel infrastructure is a must as internal combustion vehicles are phased out
Indeed, on Tuesday the EU Council adopted a regulation setting stricter CO2 emission standards for newly manufactured and registered vehicles. The new regulations are for CO2 emission reduction targets of 55% for new passenger cars and 50% for commercial vehicles to be achieved between 2030 and 2034 compared to 2021, and 100% CO2 emission reductions for new passenger cars and commercial vehicles after 2035.
In short, this means that a ban on the registration of new cars with internal combustion engines in the EU will be in effect after 2035. An exception, included in the outcome of the negotiations after objections from Germany, will be “CO2-neutral” synthetic fuels. The goal, however, is for electromobility to remain the direction in which European transportation will head.
[1] https://hydrogeneurope.eu/agreement-reached-on-afir/
[2] https://alternative-fuels-observatory.ec.europa.eu/general-information/news/parliament-adopts-its-position-afir
