A new national policy for electric vehicle charging infrastructure will open up the market as a new economic niche allowing the involvement of the private sector.

In a press conference on Monday, Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said the policy aims to regularise the sector and allow private investors to become charging point operators. 

“The government has a vision of decarbonisation and we want to keep working on creating the ideal environment for more people to choose electric vehicles instead of vehicles that run on an internal combustion engine, ultimately paving to way for people to have more access to this infrastructure,” she said. 

“There are over 400,000 registered vehicles in Malta and some 10,000 are fully electric or plug-in hybrids.” 

“We believe that making the change to EVs is the way forward in forging on with our reduced emissions goals and by facilitating more charging points we will be preparing the country for this transition," she said.

With the aim of further encouraging the use of EVs through more easily accessible charging facilities, the new policy will allow private companies to register as charging pillar operators (CPOs) with the Regulator for Energy and Water Services.

The license will cost operators €500 and is valid for 12 years. An additional fee of €75 per charging point will also be due to the authority every three years.

Premium fees are not regulated and are permitted to vary from one operator to another, however, price transparency will be mandatory. Ad-hoc and roaming charges can also be applied to the private CPOs, however, both the charging system as well as the payment services must run through an interoperability platform that will allow users from different types of charging ports. 

The policy also seeks to support the market by laying a framework to open an assistance platform to guide businesses on how to handle the transition as well as working with educational institutions to train workers to manage the infrastructure through accredited courses. 

According to the policy, the geographic distribution of the charging points will be determined through a spatial zoning exercise.

This will assign each zone a percentage range allocation on public land based on the density of housing stock and the prevalence of registered vehicles, excluding those registered for commercial purposes.

These will be established through a governing committee made up of representatives from the ministry, the regulator for water and energy services, Enemalta, Transport Malta, the Local Councils Association, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, the Building and Construction Authority, the Planning Authority and any relevant stakeholders on ad hoc basis.

In 2021, Dalli promised that electric charging points would double to 362 by the end of the year, paired with a new app that connects motorists with their nearest available public charging point. 

The government also offers one of the most generous scrapping fees in the EU, with €12,000 granted to any person who scraps their old car in favour of an electric vehicle, Dalli said.

The policy document can be downloaded here.