Malta Will Triple Electric Car Public Charging Points To 362 By End Of Year
Malta will practically triple the number of public charging pillars and charging points by the end of the year, in what will be the country’s first significant upgrade to its electric car infrastructure for several years.
Energy Minister Miriam Dalli announced yesterday that 130 new charging pillars, with a total of 260 charging points, will be installed across Malta by the end of the year.
There are currently around 56 activated public charging pillars across Malta, providing a total of 102 charging points, with the number barely increasing in recent years. Yesterday’s announcement means the number will increase to 186 charging pillars and 362 charging points.
Dalli confirmed that 108 of these new charging pillars will be medium charging pillars and the remaining 22 will be fast chargers.
It will cost drivers 17c per unit to charge their car at a medium charging pillar during non-peak hours and 19c during peak hours, while fast chargers will cost 18c per unit for non-peak hours and 20c per unit for peak hours.
Off-peak hours have been designated as between midnight and 6am, between 12pm and 4pm and all of Sunday.
“Drivers who want to charge their cars will only pay for the units they consume without any registration fee or initial costs,” Dalli said. “We believe this will make it easier and more affordable for drivers to make the transition to non-polluting cars.”
All the public charging pillars, including the existing 56 pillars, will be connected to an app ‘Charge My Ride’ which notifies drivers when their car has reached 80% and full charge and informs them where the nearest available charging pillars are.
Malta plans to replace 65,000 conventional cars with electric and hybrid ones by 2030 as part of its EU carbon neutrality targets.
The shortage of public charging pillars, as well as the lack of enforcement against charging pillar abuse, is a major sticking point among electric car owners, who have warned it is currently unfeasible to own an electric car unless you also own a garage.
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