The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a EUR 40 million loan to the Austrian-registered Eldrive Holding GmbH to install over 8,400 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Romania over the next three years. The company plans to invest about EUR 146 million to deploy 4,376 new EV charging stations in Romania, 2,575 in Lithuania, and 1,530 in Bulgaria. 

Eldrive Holding, controlled by Bulgarian investors, already operates over 1,200 EV charging points in the three countries.

The agreement with EIB is backed by the InvestEU programme, which aims to trigger more than EUR 372 billion in additional investment between 2021 and 2027.

The project is aimed at improving the low market penetration of electric vehicles and charging points in the three countries and helping them deliver on the EU Green Deal objective of having 1 million public EV chargers and alternative fuel stations spread across the 27 Member States by 2025.

“This is a very important project,” said EIB Vice-President Kyriacos Kakouris. “The transport sector is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions. The transition to e-mobility can help reduce them, as well as air pollution. However, a serious shift to electric vehicles cannot take off without the necessary infrastructure. As the EU’s climate bank, the EIB supports new EV charging networks, and I am very pleased that we will be part of modernising transport in Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Romania.” 

EV charging is one of the sectors eligible for additional support under the EIB’s initiative to support REPowerEU, the EU plan designed to end Europe’s dependence on fossil fuel imports. The EU bank has committed an additional EUR 45 billion in financing, on top of its regular lending volumes, for REPowerEU-aligned projects.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Eib.org)