Polish company Polski Koncern Naftowy ORLEN will build 40 multi-station hubs with chargers for electric cars for PLN 126 million. For this purpose, the company will receive a PLN 63 million non-refundable grant from the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. Consisting of 5 to 12 charging points with a capacity of 150 kW each, the hubs will be set up in 13 of Poland’s 16 voivodships.

ORLEN currently has 650 alternative refuelling points (503 in Poland, 128 in the Czech Republic and 19 in Germany) and is one of the largest operators in the region. They are mainly electric car charging points (600), but also CNG (47) and hydrogen (3) refuelling points. According to the updated Orlen 2030 strategy, by the end of the decade the company is to have more than 10,000 battery car charging points in Central Europe.

‘Few of our petrol stations have the necessary power connections to create a high-power charger, so NFOŚiGW’s support is a great mobilisation for us’, said Józef Węgrecki of Orlen’s management board.

40 widely available multi-station charging hubs will be built by 2027 in large agglomerations and medium-sized cities, as well as along motorways and motorways.

The priority programme ‘Support for electric vehicle charging and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure’, launched at the end of November 2021, is to help build or rebuild 17,760 charging points and stations for electric vehicles (for a total of PLN 770 million) and build 20 hydrogen refuelling stations (PLN 100 million).

The largest amount of PLN 630 million is allocated to support the construction of publicly accessible charging stations with a capacity greater than 50 kW, or their reconstruction resulting in an increase in capacity of at least 50 kW. The aim is to increase the number of generally available high-powered chargers, which make it possible to charge a battery and continue a journey in a matter of few minutes.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński