15 July 2025
E-mobility

4 Questions about electric mobility: answers in Motus-E white paper

A tool for administrators, practitioners and users, useful for understanding the major changes taking place in the mobility sector and the trends in an ever-evolving world. Ewiva, as a partner of the association, also contributed to this document with a focus on the charging experience.

 

Collected within the white paper are data and information that provide analytical and timely answers to some of the crucial questions in the public debate around electric mobility and transition in Italy.

 

What is the state of the public charging infrastructure in Italy?

In recent years, the public charging network has grown at an extraordinary rate: today Italy has more than 65,000 charging points, an increase of 217% in the last four years. It is estimated that about 94% of the national territory is covered by at least one charging station within a 10 km radius. Also important is the growth in the South and Islands, where charging points have increased by 25 percent in the last year alone, a sign of efforts to make the territorial distribution of the infrastructure increasingly homogeneous.

 

Italy is currently fourth in Europe in the number of charging points per 100 electric cars, second if only DC points are considered. The presence of charging stations along highways has also been intensifying in recent years, and to date about 45 percent of service areas have at least one charging point. All these data provide objective evidence that charging infrastructure is no longer a barrier to the adoption of electric mobility.

 

How is the charging experience evolving?

Charging electric cars is becoming easier and more accessible. In addition to the use of subscription or pay-as-you-go RFID apps and cards according to the offerings of the many charging service providers, contactless payments with a credit or ATM card directly at the charging station are becoming increasingly popular. This is also a practical solution for those who do not have a subscription, such as tourists, occasional users or in case of need.

 

An additional technology that makes the charging experience even easier is the deployment of the Plug&Charge method: for enabled vehicles, simply plug the car into the column and charging starts on its own, without the need for cards or apps. Ewiva was the first CPO to deploy Plug&Charge on a large scale in Italy.

 

Will disposing of electric car batteries be a problem?

Disposal of electric car batteries is one of the most hotly debated topics and is often the subject of misinformation and false beliefs. Certainly, their disposal is a complex process that presents challenges but also significant opportunities. A first point to note is related to durability: batteries in electric cars have a very long lifespan and begin to lose efficiency only after 8-9 years of use.

 

Moreover, at the end of their life they can be reused for energy storage in homes, businesses, or photovoltaic systems. Only at the end of this second life does the disposal segment take over. From this point of view, important technological and regulatory advances are being made: safer and longer-lived batteries, more efficient disposal processes, and the introduction of the European Battery Passport as a tool for traceability.

 

In this context, Italy can seize an important business opportunity and become a European hub for battery recycling. A sector that estimates could generate more than half a billion euros by 2050, creating economic and industrial value.

 

There are currently about 80 companies in the Italian supply chain that deal with batteries but only about ten deal with disposal. This is a potential that could be fully exploited with targeted investment and economic and regulatory support from institutions.

 

Where are we with the electrification of local public transport and corporate fleets?

The transportation transition also involves local public transport buses and commercial vehicles, and although Italy is not yet at the level of many European countries, the sector is undergoing a significant transformation. By 2024, four out of ten registered city buses were electric, a 162 percent increase over 2023. This is already a growing trend, and it is predicted that by 2050, nearly 90 percent of the buses operating in cities for public transport will be electric.

 

As for commercial vehicles, corporate fleets are seen as key and driving elements of the transition. For this reason, the EU is considering dedicated action plans with incentives on the price of energy and the initial purchase of vehicles.

 

In Italy, the trend of registrations in the first four months of 2025 is encouraging: +41% of light vehicles and +137% of heavy vehicles compared to 2024. And to support this transition, 15% of the Italian road network will need to be equipped with high-power charging stations dedicated to heavy vehicles by 2025.

These data confirm that electric mobility in Italy is no longer a hypothetical future, but a rapidly evolving and developing reality, supported by innovation, infrastructure and new industrial opportunities.