The Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom are the best prepared countries in Europe for the electric vehicle revolution, and Europe overall has shown to be increasingly prepared for more widespread adoption of EVs, according to LeasePlan’s latest 2021 EV Readiness Index report.

Despite the efforts from the European countries, charging infrastructure continues to be a major roadblock, and the rate of charging infrastructure installation fell in 2020, the FMC said in its most EV Readiness Index, which is an analysis of the preparedness of 22 European countries for the electric vehicle revolution. 

The Index is based on three factors: EV registrations, the maturity of EV infrastructure, and government incentives in each country, LeasePlan said.

The index also found that almost all countries show an improved score compared to last year, signalling increased EV readiness across the continent. 

The rate of improvement, however, varies significantly across Europe, with Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic having both the lowest scores and the slowest improvement rate, underlining the continued disparity between Western and Eastern Europe in terms of EV readiness, the index found.

The study also found that in 11 countries, EVs are already cheaper than their ICE counterparts on a TCO basis, LeasePlan said. In addition, EV drivers pay on average only 63% of the tax that ICE drivers pay. Austria, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Poland and the U.K. are leading the charge as, EV drivers pay no driver tax at all in these countries

Charging infrastructure is still lagging and will be key to improving EV readiness going forward. Although some progress was made in 2020 on charging infrastructure, the rate of improvement actually dropped compared to last year (43% increase rate in 2020 compared to 73% increase in 2019). Even in top-ranked countries, charging infrastructure remains far from adequate 

“Our EV Readiness Index shows that while electric driving is more affordable than ever across Europe, public charging infrastructure is still woefully lacking. In opinion polling done earlier this year, we already saw that lack of charging infrastructure was a major roadblock stopping drivers from going electric – and the analysis in our EV Readiness Index proves these fears are well founded,” said Tex Gunning, CEO of LeasePlan. “To put it bluntly: the pace of improvement just isn’t fast enough, and Europe is failing to deliver the infrastructure required for the clean mobility revolution. Leaders and policymakers in every single one of the 22 countries in this Index need to step up and invest in a universal, affordable and sustainable charging infrastructure before it’s too late – the climate emergency can’t wait.”