The Polish e-mobility sector will enter the holiday season with a number of approximately 50,000 registered electric cars in the country. According to experts from GreenWay Polska, the increase in the number of cars with a green board on Polish roads and holiday travel will be an important performance test for the charging infrastructure in the country. The company prepared itself by building new stations and increasing capacities in many locations, as well as replacing devices that did not work as expected.
According to the Electricity Meter launched by PZPM and PSPA, at the end of March 2022, over 45,000 electric cars were registered in Poland, and in the entire first quarter of this year, their number increased by over 5,700. We still have to wait for the data from the second quarter, but exceeding the barrier of 50,000 EVs in Poland is real.
Data from GreenWay Polska show that it is in the summer season that records are broken in terms of the number of drivers using car charging services and the energy they use.
- Last year, only in July, drivers took three times more energy from our chargers than in six months a year earlier - comments Rafał Czyżewski, CEO of GreenWay Polska – This year, with the increase in the number of EVs approaching exponentially, we expect a sharp increase in the demand for the charging services, especially during the holidays. We have taken this into account in our network development strategy.
More stations
Since 2017, the public charging infrastructure of GreenWay has been growing at the rate of approximately 6 new charging stations per month, and from the beginning of this year till the end of May, the company added 48 new stations to the network. In the coming weeks, GreenWay will launch 20 more devices. So there is a good chance that after the holidays, the largest charging network in Poland will already have over 400 generally accessible stations.
- We are trying to make our network grow faster and faster, but we are not always able to provide the exact dates of the expected launch of the charging stations. Each new or rebuilt station for the purpose of power increase, must obtain the consent of the Office of Technical Inspection - explains Rafał Rupar, Director of the GreenWay Polska Network Development Department. - Additionally, the date of commissioning depends on the completion of power connections by Distribution Network Operators.
Higher power
New chargers installation is not the only case. During the journey, the time spent charging the car on the road is extremely important for the driver and his passengers. The power of the charger plays a key role here.
Parallel to the expansion of the network, GreenWay deals with increasing the power of stations in the most frequented locations, as well as replacing devices that have not proven themselves with ones that are more reliable.
- The speed of charging is one of the most important factors contributing to the comfort of using an EV - comments Rafał Czyżewski, CEO of GreenWay Polska. - Thanks to the investor support received at the beginning of the year, we can now adapt our network to customer needs faster, including increasing the charging power of the chargers, which translates into shorter charging times.
By the end of this summer, drivers will charger their cars at new 150 kW chargers in locations where older and weaker devices have been operating so far:
1) Gryf Szczecin
2) Revia Park Zamość
3) Galeria Solna Inowrocław
4) Kaufland Wrocław III
5) Kaufland Elbląg
6) Skanska S.A. Wroclaw
7) MZK Koszalin
8) Stare Jabłonki Restaurant
9) Kaufland Rzeszów
It is worth recalling that last year the company increased the power of about forty charging stations from 40 kW to 50 kW.
Currently, in order to improve the quality of services, GreenWay is replacing 14 ultra-fast chargers from the EVBox manufacturer with devices of the Delta brand. In five – stated-below - locations, the reconstruction is already underway, and the launch of new chargers with a capacity of up to 200 kW is scheduled for the end of July:
1) MOP Malankowo, head of Toruń
2) MOP Malankowo, head of Gdańsk
3) Hotel Dwór Sójki Kutno
4) Orlen Łyszkowice Fuel Station
5) Citronex Zgorzelec
In the case of two locations, works will start in July and will last until the end of September. In these places, during the period July-September, drivers can expect difficulties with accessing the chargers:
1) BP Niepruszewo
2) BP Strzelce Opolskie
