Why skills and charging infrastructure will decide Europe’s EV future

Europe’s e-mobility sector has been expanding quickly, but its progress will be determined by the ability to build and maintain charging infrastructure — and to develop the workforce required to support it. Portugal provides a telling example.

To understand both the conditions that enabled Portugal’s early progress and the operational and workforce challenges now shaping Europe’s wider e-mobility sector, I spoke with two people working at those intersections: Íñigo Díaz Ubieta from EDP, who has direct insight into Spain and Portugal’s charging rollout, and Antoine Picron from ChargePoint, who focuses on the policy and skills issues affecting deployment across the continent.

Portugal: Early success in need of polishing

For Díaz Ubieta, a Senior Manager for eMobility, although Portugal has had success in rolling out EV fleets, their approach still requires polishing. 

“Does the country have more work to be done? 100%,” he says. “Not everything is perfect. We have a lot of things that we have to improve.” 

He notes, however, that uptake has differed noticeably from Spain. “EV adoption has been way stronger in Portugal than in Spain.” 

Indeed, the country has consistently had a much higher penetration and share of EVs in comparison to its neighbours, Spain and Italy, and Díaz Ubieta attributes this to two factors.

The first was the development of its charging ecosystem through Mobi.E, which “required mandatory interoperability.” 

Because of this, operators had less freedom in how they structured their services, but users could charge across networks with a single EMSP (electric mobility service provider) card. 

“From the user perspective, it was very convenient, because it basically allowed you to charge wherever you wanted with every EMSP card.” 

The second factor was the timing and accessibility of incentives that were directed towards the purchase of EVs, although not towards CPOs. 

Subsidies were available earlier, application processes were simpler and payments were delivered more quickly. According to Díaz Ubieta, Spain’s longer reimbursement period discouraged participation. Taken together, he says, these conditions supported early growth in Portugal.

Although all of this is promising, Díaz Ubieta adds that there is yet significant space for the country’s sector to improve, and operational challenges continue to hamper rollout. Namely, as the network expands, reliability issues have required increasing attention. 

Díaz Ubieta cites cable theft, maintenance demands and routine technical faults as factors that affect both performance and customer experience. 

He emphasises that maintaining consistent operation remains the priority, rather than advancing new use cases such as vehicle-to-grid (V2G). Although the tech is being explored, it remains at the pilot stage. 

“We are actually doing some pilot projects, and we see the potential, but we are still at the initial stage of pilots…”

He highlights the need for clearer rules, incentives and a setup in which consumer benefits are straightforward.

Getting the right people for the job

Scaling up this type of infrastructure, whether for unidirectional charging or V2G, requires the right people as much as the right technology. 

And such workforce constraints have been emerging for the sector across Europe.  

“Talent is key to accelerating the EV transition, and it is needed across every part of the value chain,” said Picron, noting that while Europe has a strong industrial workforce — including automotive manufacturing employment representing around 6% of total jobs — this does not automatically provide the skills required for charging infrastructure.

Installation quality is a particular concern. Picron explains that many failures are linked to installation rather than hardware: “When it comes to charging, reliability is absolutely key. 

"It enables fleet managers to run their operations efficiently, reduces friction points, and ensures the best possible charging experience.

"We’ve noticed that a significant share of charger failures are linked to improper installation, which is exactly what our training initiative aims to address.”

ChargePoint has created training and certification programmes for electrical contractors in Europe and North America, focusing on both its own technology and general charging standards. He argues that raising installation competence is essential because charger performance has become a commercial expectation and a political priority.

The skills required for charging infrastructure are also evolving. Smart charging, load management, fleet electrification and emerging applications such as V2G are increasing the technical complexity of the sector. 

Picron says organisations do not need every employee to be a grid expert, but they do need staff who understand that EVs are “batteries on wheels, or decentralised energy resources.” Without this shift, infrastructure could scale faster than the workforce capable of managing it.

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The 2035 target

These concerns feed directly into Europe’s competitiveness, with industry groups and companies arguing for long-term policy stability to support industrial investment. 

The TakeChargeEU campaign is one such example. The coalition, consisting of more than 200 companies from across the EV value chain, is calling on EU institutions to keep the 2035 zero-emission vehicle target and to reinforce it with consistent policy signals. 

The group argues that policy uncertainty affects investment decisions and can slow deployment during a period of global competition.

In their call to action, Michael Halbherr, CEO of ABB E-mobility, commented: 

“The e-mobility sector is a key part of the European clean technology industry and is becoming increasingly competitive. That is why we need political and regulatory certainty to support the investment and continued growth of the sector for the benefit of the customer and the European industry. 

“We need bold, unwavering commitment and certainty from our politicians to ensure the future remains bright for the EV transition.”

Said Eric Plaquet, CEO of Gireve: “Players cannot secure investments and build an industry that is competitive globally without a reliable and predictable policy framework.

“Keeping the target in place will enable the debates to focus on how, not if.”

Zooming in on Portugal shows an experience that reflects these wider pressures. 

Early (policy) clarity helped establish momentum, while current challenges emphasise reliability, workforce capacity and infrastructure modernisation. But Europe faces similar conditions across a far larger system. 

The technologies are advancing and the market opportunity is expanding, but meeting future demand depends on the ability to install, operate and maintain infrastructure at scale.