Hodonín – 100th public charging station for electric cars operated by the ČEZ Group in the Czech Republic. Valašské Meziříčí – fast charging point number 50. The project ČEZ Electromobility has in the past days reached two symbolic milestones. The ČEZ Group's public network of charging stations, whose scale is recently becoming equal to that of the larger chains of classic petrol stations, has supplied a total of 640,426 kWh of electricity last year to electric cars. This represents an almost fourfold increase compared to the consumption in 2016.
“We continue building new stations, especially fast charging ones, in quick succession. By the end of this year, we would like to expand our network by a few dozen more. We estimate that the volume of electricity provided by our network of public charging stations will be close to one million kWh this year, which is, for example, the equivalent of 28 thousand full recharges of a middle-class electric car,“ says Pavel Cyrani, Member of the Board of Directors and Chief Officer for Sales and Strategy Division.
The construction of public fast charging stations is partly funded through two grants of the European CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) program, whose challenge has been successfully met by ČEZ in the past year and in the year before. The European Commission thus supports the interconnection of Europe by constructing charging stations along the main TEN-T road network. At the same time, ČEZ also expands its network using its own resources. For more, visit http://www.elektromobilita.cz/cs/mapa-dobijecich-stanic.html.
ČEZ = electromobility under one roof
The ČEZ Group comprehensively covers the entire field of electromobility. At the beginning of the year, ČEZ Prodej, s.r.o. has offered the “Electricity for Charging” product, which combines favourable price of electricity for home charging as well as for charging in the public network of charging stations operated by ČEZ, while also guaranteeing that the consumption of the customer’s household was covered by electricity from renewable energy sources. This will be followed by a new set of products during this year making the transition to electromobility easier for households. At the same time, ČEZ ESCO offers a wide range of related services and products for companies, municipalities and regions. This includes, for example, design and installation of turn-key charging stations, electrification of car fleets, charging platforms, including IT solutions, rentals or sales of electric cars or wall boxes and charging cables. For local authorities, ČEZ offers the implementation and operation of charging stations for electric buses or design of electromobility concepts for individual towns and regions. Some of the important customers from the latest period are the Dopravní podnik hl. m. Prahy and the Ústí nad Labem region.
There are approximately 2,000 electric cars currently registered in the Czech Republic. The increase in the number of electric cars was 400 vehicles during the last year, while this year, up until just the end of May, the number has increased by 277 vehicles. Projections of future development indicate that, within the next few years, annual sales of electric cars and plug-in hybrids will be in the order of thousands. As is the case in other developed European countries, electric cars are becoming a common part of traffic in the Czech Republic, especially in the cities. The longer driving range of the new types of electric cars combined with higher density of public charging stations open the possibility of intercity travel for electromobility.