Urgent call for ambitious action on road transport transition in the upcoming Electrification Action Plan

Urgent call for ambitious action on road transport transition in the upcoming Electrification Action Plan

ACEA — 2026-07-16

News from Brussels

The European Union stands at a crucial moment in its energy transition. In 2024, nearly 60% of the EU’s energy needs were met by net imports, exposing our continent to external shocks and economic vulnerabilities. The recent crisis in the Middle East underscored this dependency, with the cost of fossil fuel imports surging by over EUR 22 billion in just 44 days, as highlighted by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Electrification is a fundamental driver of Europe’s energy security and decarbonisation, strengthening resilience by replacing imported fossil fuels with domestic renewable energy carriers. It will be delivered through an integrated approach across the wider energy system, together with all viable decarbonization technologies including renewable and low-carbon energy carriers, storage solutions, and intelligent energy infrastructure. 

The numbers speak for themselves: electrification, combined with renewables and enhanced system flexibility, could deliver hundreds of billions of euros in savings by 2040, while halving our import dependency. Every euro invested in electricity grids could yield more than two euros in system cost savings by the same year.

Zero-emission vehicles, including battery-electric cars, vans, trucks and buses, stand at the cornerstone of this transition, bridging energy and transport while delivering economic and system-wide benefits to the EU. Europe’s EV ecosystem has already attracted over €200 billion in committed investment, making it one of the largest industrial transformations underway in Europe and a key driver of the global clean mobility transition.

The energy crisis has served as a catalyst for this shift: 950,521 BEVs were registered in the first five months of 2026 (a 35.7% increase), with battery electric cars accounting for more than one in five EU registrations, saving nearly 4 million barrels of oil annually. While more than half of all new city-buses are zero-emission today, the transition of medium- and heavyduty trucks is still at an early stage with only 2.3% of EU all new heavy trucks registered as
zero-emission in the first quarter of 2026.

Now, the Electrification Action Plan (EAP) must accelerate this trend across the European Union, with road transport, removing barriers for both light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles. Weurge you to go beyond high-level targets and embrace bold, concrete actions that supportdemand uptake, reduce electricity costs, facilitate charging infrastructure uptake, encourage smart and bidirectional charging, and unlock private investment. These measures will strengthen Europe’s energy independence, and ensure the EU remains at the forefront of the zero-emission transport and energy revolution, which as part of the wider energy system framework needs to be open to all viable decarbonization technologies.

ACEA and E-Mobility Europe stand ready to support the Commission in this endeavor and call on you to prioritize these measures (see Annex) in the upcoming Electrification Action Plan.

Annex – Key measures for the Electrification Action Plan (EAP)

1. Reduce the Cost of Electricity

To make zero-emission road transport competitive and accessible, we urge the Commission and Member States to:
• Reduce electricity taxes to minimum levels and remove non-electricity-related levies that disproportionately burden consumers and businesses.
• Apply 0% VAT on key electrification and flexibility technologies, including batteries, zero-emission vehicles, and charging, following the precedent set by solar panels. This measure must be promptly implemented across all Member States.

• Publish and adopt the legislative proposal on network charges and taxation announced in the AccelerateEU Communication, ensuring that electricity is
taxed less than gas.

2. Enable Bidirectional Charging

Bidirectional charging can unlock the full potential of electric vehicles as mobile energy storage units, enhancing grid flexibility. To achieve this, the EAP must:

• Eliminate double taxation of smart and bidirectional charging.

• Promote end-to-end interoperability across smart and bidirectional charging through the coordinated implementation of communication, energy transfer and supporting standards, underpinned by defined use cases and test cases and supported by an EUwide phased roadmap. Harmonised grid code certification must be the first step of the roadmap, ensuring EU-wide roll-out of bidirectional charging solutions, then progressively enabling interoperability across hardware, data, and services.

• Introduce market-based incentives that reward participation in flexibility
technologies.

• Ramp up the roll-out of smart meters with time-of-use tariffs, unlock smart EV
charging, and remove barriers for aggregators and suppliers to optimize the energy system.

3. Address Heavy-Duty Vehicle (HDV) Electrification

The transition of heavy-duty vehicles to zero-emission is a critical but often overlooked component of the transition. The EAP must include:

• A dedicated de-risking mechanism for publicly accessible HDV charging. Access to private financing is a major barrier to scaling HDV charging investment. While private investors are willing, the challenge lies in financing assets that are strategically important and commercially viable in the long term but exposed to utilization risks during the market ramp-up phase. A de-risking mechanism—whether through InvestEU or another financial instrument—would reduce demand-related risks, improve project bankability, lower financing costs, and mobilize significantl larger volumes of private capital. This represents a highly efficient use of public resources by leveraging private investment rather than relying solely on grants.

• A Depot Charging Strategy to facilitate the uptake of charging in depots, including:
o Faster permitting processes.
o Identifying priority areas where logistics operate.
o Ensuring depots are pre-cabled.
o Updating insurance policies to allow for ve to allow for vehicle charging in depots.

4. Modernize and Expand the Grid

A robust and flexible grid is the backbone of road transport electrification. The EAP must prioritize:
• Fast-tracking electricity grid modernization and expansion through increased funding, anticipatory investments, and prioritization of strategic projects
• Optimizing grid connection processes with clear, pre-defined, and streamlined entry criteria, digitalized procedures, and priority queues for better grid utilization, in line with the Commission Guidance 2025/6703 on efficient and timely grid connections.
• Fully implementing RED III permitting rules and removing administrative barriers for electricity grids, EV charging, and battery storage.

5. Implement REDIII Credit Mechanisms
The prompt implementation of fuel-neutral credit mechanisms under RED III can accelerate the electrification of transport by reducing recharging costs and reinforcing the polluter-pays principle. To maximize their impact, these mechanisms must:

• Cover both public and private charging infrastructure, including depots.
• Be implemented uniformly across the Union by Member States without delay.

6. Implement a Strong Enabling Framework

To provide stability and confidence to investors and stakeholders, the EU must:

• Swiftly and effectively implement adopted legislation and policies, including Emission Trading System 2, the Electricity Market Design Directive, Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation, Eurovignette, and the EU Action Plan for Grids.