Greece tops the table when it comes to the highest level of ‘range anxiety’ facing drivers of electric vehicles in Western Europe, according to new research.

To mark World Earth Day, the car rental experts at StressFreeCarRental.com have explored the prevalence of EV chargers on key routes in 13 countries in Europe including the Nordic states. You can read more and see the results here.

Fewer available chargers for electric vehicles means an increase in stress and anxiety as motorists have to explore less well known roads to find charging points for their car along their journey.

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The study by StressFreeCarRental.com explores frequency of EV chargers on key routes in Europe plus the cost of running diesel and electric vehicles.

They have found Greece has no fast CCS (combined charging system) chargers for EV’s per 100km of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), according to latest available data – meaning drivers are more likely to be stranded if they run out of electricity on their journey.

When factoring the cost of needing to power your electric vehicle, Italy and Belgium are other countries which could increase an EV motorist’s ‘range anxiety’, where drivers need to pay a higher price for their electricity – but may find fewer fast chargers on route.

The Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) was adopted by the European Parliament and Council in July 1996. It is a planned network of roads, railways, airports and water infrastructure in the European Union, generating improvements to primary road, railways, airports and ports to provide integrated, long distance high-speed routes. The core network has a completion target of 2030. In 2017, it was agreed to extend the project to Eastern European countries.

A spokesperson for StressFreeCarRental.com said: “Our research explores the prevalence of CCS chargers on key routes in Western Europe along with the cost to power your electric vehicle against the price of petrol. There are some fascinating results which demonstrate which countries have more chargers on main routes and lower fuel and electric costs compared to others.

“It is a changing picture as economics and infrastructure evolves with time, but demonstrates the importance of planning your journey in advance, whether for business or pleasure.”

2020 figures (Statista) for the availability of CCS chargers show Italy and Spain fair little better than Greece with just 2.3 chargers per 100km of the TEN-T network in Italy and 2.4 over the same distance in Spain. They are followed by Luxembourg with 2.5 and Portugal with just 2.9 chargers per 100km.

At the other end of the scale, motorists enjoy an abundance of CCS chargers per 100km of the TEN-T in the UK with 19.7, followed by Holland with 17.2 and Germany with 14.4. But these are the only three countries with CCS chargers available in double figures over 100km – Sweden tables fourth with 8.4.

The only Nordic country where data for the prevalence of chargers is not available on the TEN-T route is Norway. However, motorists here appear to have the most value for their money, with the cost of electric the cheapest in Europe in this country. It would cost around 1.95 Euros to travel 100km by electric vehicle.

Both Sweden and Holland enjoy comparable value for money for topping up their electric car – in both countries it costs around 2.4 Euros to travel 100km. This is using the same metric of needing 15kwh of electricity to travel 100km. With both countries in the top four for prevalence of chargers on the TEN-T route, these appear to be the locations where ‘range anxiety’ would be at its lowest levels in view of how cheap it is to charge an EV compared to some of their European counterparts.

People in Germany face the most expensive price for their electricity – at 4.65 Euros to travel 100km, with Denmark second at a cost of 4.35 Euros to travel the same distance. Belgium is third at 3.9 Euros and the UK is fourth at 3.6 Euros.

The Dutch may increasingly favour electric vehicles as their chosen mode of transport – as Holland has the most expensive petrol in Western Europe with a cost of 18.65 Euros to fill a tank to travel 100km. Norway is second in this table at a cost of 17.92 Euros to travel the same distance, with Denmark third at 16.8 Euros.

The cheapest country in the study for petrol is Luxembourg, at 13.36 Euros to travel 100km, followed by Belgium at 13.84 and Spain at 14.16 Euros. These figures are all on the basis petrol vehicles need eight litres of petrol to travel 100km.