Abstract:

In Poland, the general acceptance of electricity fuelled vehicles is much less significant. The share of such vehicles in the total number of vehicles on the automotive market registered in 2019 was only - 0.5%. In January 2018, the Polish Parliament (the Sejm) passed the Act on electromobility and alternative fuels which establishes a certain system and provides a number of objectives vital for electric vehicle market development. Being aware of the fact that, at least for the first few years, infrastructure development is a key factor, the legislator, in Art. 60, section 1 of the Act, establish a minimum number of EV charging outlets to be installed in Polish communes, by 31 December 2020. However, no specific directions to their location were provided. It simply specifies a minimum number of them that shall be constructed in communes with specific demographic and transportation features, such as the number of inhabitants, motor vehicles, and cars per 1000 residents. The purpose of this article is to indicate in which, specifically, municipalities, according to the act, electric vehicles charging outlets are to be located. Based on the analysis performed it was determined that publicly available EV charging outlets must be installed only in 32 of 2477 communes in Poland and these are municipalities. Identification of such communes made it possible to determine the distances between them, which made it possible to verify whether the network of EV charging infrastructure planned on the basis of the guidelines in the Act will enable efficient route travel in the future without experiencing any range anxiety. In addition, current market conditions were presented and debated, with an assessment of whether they are favourable to reaching the Act's minimum charging point requirement. The conducted analysis serves as an introduction for additional research towards establishing the best charging outlet distribution in Poland.