Electric vehicle adoption in Europe is advancing more slowly than anticipated, prompting Fastned, a leading operator of EV charging stations, to revise its growth forecasts for 2025. The company shared these updated projections during its quarterly results presentation on Thursday.
Fastned has revised its expectation for the number of charging stations by 2025, reducing it to a range of 400 to 425 stations, compared to the 346 that were operational as of December. This forecast suggests an addition of about fifty new locations within a year. Fastned’s charging stations are spread across several European countries, including the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, and France.
Fastned attributes this recalibration to prevailing “negative sentiment” in the media regarding electric vehicles. The EV market is under scrutiny due to expected reductions in purchase subsidies beginning in 2025 and potentially continuing in the following years. Despite a rise in the sales of new electric cars in the Netherlands, the anticipated growth rate of plug-in vehicles has been lower than earlier projections.
In several European regions, divergent trends have emerged, with Germany experiencing a significant decline in EV sales last year. This downturn is mainly due to the government’s reduction of subsidies for plug-in vehicles, compounded by challenges from an ongoing recession. Despite these changes, Fastned’s strategic adjustments could be beneficial in the long term, especially as the global transition to sustainable transport continues to gain momentum.