Number of EV Charging Stations Bound to Increase

By Justin Mays:

The number of electric car (EV) charging stations is about to increase in Turkey. Talking to Anadolu Agency, Mr. Mustafa Yilmaz, head of Turkey’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) pointed out that electric car drivers will soon have access to public car stations as soon as the new regulations are endorsed.

By the end of 2021, Turkey had over 6.000 electric cars and 3.500 charging stations. Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir had the highest number of charging units with 1.265, 320, and 250 units respectively. 

One of the new regulations specifies that charging stations connected to a charging network will be charging kilowatts per hour. “Electric car charging services will be open to all users, with prices based on kilowatt-hours only. Stations cannot charge users any extra costs” Yılmaz said.

Companies that wish to own an operator license must have a minimum of 4.5 million TL (305.850 USD) and need to be able to deploy a minimum of at least 50 charging units. 5% of the charging units must be fast chargers with the capacity of DC 50 kilowatts. On highways, there is also a requirement that 50% of the charging stations must have a minimum capacity of DC 50 Kilowatts. 

EPDK will soon establish an online platform called Free Access Platform that will allow users to get information regarding station locations, charging capacity, costs, payment methods, and make reservations for charging. Users of this application will benefit from 20% price discounts. 

Operating expense support will not be applied for the projects and non-refundable support will be granted for electric vehicle charging station investments, with up to 75% and 20 million TL (1.359.350 USD) under the new regulations.