Green Forum • 17 June, 2024 at 9:00 AM
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will invest €15 million in Eldrive Holding GmbH (Eldrive), a leading regional charging point operator in Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Romania.
By 2028, it will install and operate 7,400 new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in addition to the 900 it already operates, expanding the EV infrastructure currently available in those countries.
The EBRD will invest alongside Renalfa Solarpro Group, Eldrive's owner, in the first phase of development. The European Investment Bank (EIB) is also providing a €40 million venture debt facility.
This investment supports the European Union's commitment to decarbonization. With the transport sector responsible for 22 percent of global CO2 emissions in 2022, EU countries are accelerating the rollout of clean electric mobility. The EU Green Deal's objective is to reach one million public EV charging stations in the EU by 2025 and three million by 2030. Currently, central, southern, and eastern European markets are lagging behind Western European countries in the availability of EV charging stations.
Eldrive is a leading regional EV CPO in Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Romania, facilitating the acceleration of EV uptake and bolstering the decarbonization of transport, critical at this early stage of market development.
Renalfa Solarpro Group, an existing client of the EBRD, is an Austrian-based clean energy and e-mobility investment group with a focus on renewable energy generation assets. The group currently has solar and wind power projects under construction and development with a total capacity of 3 GW in Bulgaria, Hungary, North Macedonia, Poland and Romania.