Inanc Salman, General Manager of Zorlu Energy Trade, evaluated the rapidly developing electric charging market in Turkey with the use of electric vehicles.
Salman said that electric vehicle charging stations in Turkey have developed to meet all needs in terms of legislation, infrastructure and technique in parallel with the widespread use of electric vehicles.
Stating that sustaining this development in a sustainable way is among the most important agenda topics, Salman said that with the ZES (Zorlu Energy Solutions) brand established by Zorlu Energy in 2018, he foresees the rising need in Turkey and in Europe with the ‘electrip’ brand for electric vehicle charging stations. stated that it is continuing its investments.
Pointing out that the number of charging stations is in a very good condition compared to the number of cars on the roads in Turkey, Salman said, “There are currently about 6,000 sockets as an electric vehicle charging station. More than half of these sockets are operated by Zorlu Energy. We are the market leader in Turkey with ZES. Today.” “We have reached over 3,000 sockets in our 81 provinces, including Cyprus. Our main focus right now is to continue to grow this electric vehicle charging station network, which we have established in a large country like Turkey, in a sustainable way in parallel with the infrastructure reinforcement investments in our country,” he said.
Expressing the effects of Togg on the markets, Salman shared the following information:
“From this year, of course, with the influence of Togg, we think that the number and models of electric vehicles will increase. We foresee that the number of electric vehicles will increase rapidly in Turkey, especially from the second half of 2023 and between 2024 and 2025. In today’s conditions, the number of chargers in our country is sufficient. Although we think that more than 1.5 million electric vehicles will be on our roads by 2030 and they will need one-tenth of this number of chargers for common use, which shows that there will be a need for approximately 150 thousand electric vehicle chargers. In order to establish the infrastructure for electric vehicles, it needs to invest around 3 billion dollars until 2030. 2 billion dollars of this will belong to distribution companies, and 1 billion dollars will belong to companies that invest in charging stations.”
Emphasizing that the regulations of the Energy Market Regulatory Authority regarding charging stations were welcomed by the sector representatives, Salman said that with the establishment of the legal infrastructure in the field of electric transportation in Turkey, the interest of investors in this field has increased and the number of applications is currently over 120.
Pointing out that offering different solutions other than licenses will pave the way for the industry, Salman said, “Real persons or companies that want to operate a charging station can have the opportunity to operate a charging station by obtaining certificates from licensed companies. Thus, certified charging station operators can use software, call centers, payment infrastructure, etc. it also gets rid of many cost-increasing items.” shared his knowledge.
“Systems should be created to correctly manage the load distribution in the network”
Pointing out the importance of establishing an infrastructure where electric vehicle users can charge their vehicles according to their daily routine, Salman said, “If we give an example from Europe, in the first place, vehicle charging in homes and offices corresponds to 80 percent of the total, while the charges made at public stations are 20 percent. “In the last few years, we see that a balance has started to be achieved in the charging area. The expectation is, of course, that the devices are positioned correctly according to the needs rather than the ratio. Basically, I think that these usage preferences will develop in parallel in our country and the rates will be balanced,” he said.
Salman said that while electric vehicle technologies are developing, systems that will correctly manage the load distribution in the electricity grid should also be created.
Stating that they are working on this issue in Europe, Salman said, “Very different methods are used for this. For example, by monitoring the price of electricity during the day, solutions are produced that will enable the vehicle owner to get electricity at minimum cost and balance the grid load during the day. With certain incentive mechanisms, electric vehicle users are charged at intervals determined. its use is encouraged.
Salman continued:
“What we need to do in Turkey is to facilitate the transition to electric vehicles with incentives. Secondly, it is necessary to develop certain solutions for vehicle owners to enable charging at minimum cost. While incentives are given in this area in Europe, an evaluation is made from the perspective of the future, and electric vehicle charging stations are the future of the future. “In this ecosystem, consumers are also producers and distributed energy systems are used. Since electric vehicles can simultaneously store energy through their batteries, they can supply energy to the system at certain times of the day.”
Pointing out that one of the points of interest in electric vehicles is range, Salman said, “With our high-speed ZES DC units, users can charge their vehicles at a rate of 80 percent in 20 minutes, depending on the vehicle capacity. This period is also possible with AC devices, especially in urban points and shopping malls. It takes 3-4 hours depending on the vehicle capacity,” he said.
Salman added that independent charging stations will definitely come to the fore in the coming days in parallel with the increase in the number of electric vehicles.
The number of charging stations per vehicle is increasing rapidly
Enerjisa Energy Chief Executive (CEO) and Eşarj Chairman of the Board Murat Pınar also stated that the number of charging stations per vehicle increased rapidly with the number of electric vehicles and market share in Turkey, and said, “When we look at the world, we see that 1 charging station is targeted for every 10 vehicles. “The number of public charging stations available in Turkey is higher than this rate. The number of electric vehicles is close to 20 thousand,” he said.
Referring to the importance of the domestic electric car Togg in terms of the electric vehicle market and charging stations, Pınar said, “We believe that Togg will be the main trigger of the e-mobility ecosystem, which has already gained momentum. With both our domestic vehicle and the new models that will be sold in Turkey this year. Together, we expect the electric vehicle park to increase at least threefold. We believe that previous investments will be able to serve at a higher capacity thanks to this important development, and that new investments will also gain momentum,” he said.
Reminding that, according to the Mobility Vehicles and Technologies Strategic Targets and Roadmap Draft, the market share of electric vehicle sales is expected to increase to 35 percent, the electric vehicle park to 2.5 million, and the number of public charging sockets to 250 thousand in 2030, Pınar said, Until last year, most of these charging stations consisted of stations where AC type charging took longer time and were focused on certain big cities.We see that the number of DC type high-speed charging stations across Turkey has started to increase as of 2023. As Eşarj, we have grown to 50 in the last 6 months. We are happy to establish more than 250 high-speed charging stations in nearly 200 cities,” he said.
Pınar stated that although the headquarters of companies that have obtained a charging network operator license are located in different cities of Turkey, most of the charging stations are focused on cities where the number of electric vehicles is high.
Pointing out that as of 31 December, legal entities holding a charging network operator license must establish their charging networks by 30 June in accordance with the relevant article of the Charging Service Regulation, Pınar said:
“Although the electricity infrastructure varies from region to region, additional infrastructure investments may be required, especially for high-speed charging stations. Depending on the power of the station and the infrastructure investment to be made, the costs can start from around 1000 Euros to over 100 thousand Euros. Electric vehicles can be taken directly from the home installation for an average of 15 hours and It is possible to charge it for an average of 4-8 hours with alternating current chargers called wallboxes or wallboxes. On the other hand, we can say that this time drops to less than half an hour at high-speed charging stations operating with direct current in public areas.”
