The Competition Authority conducted a thorough analysis in 2024 to assess the competitive situation and market development trends in the Estonian public charging infrastructure for light vehicles. The analysis revealed that charging infrastructure is expanding mainly to larger localities, while charging opportunities and market development are limited in sparsely populated areas.
The results of the analysis showed that the Estonian public charging infrastructure market is still in its early stages and is developing mainly in densely populated areas. According to recharging point operators, investments primarily focus on the future, considering the wider adoption of electric vehicles and the potential for an increased demand for public charging services.
The analysis assumes that in the early stages of the market, there may be competition for position among market players. This manifests in the expansion into attractive locations, the selection of cooperation partners, and the exploitation of the electricity distribution network’s potential. The Authority found it important to assess whether capturing such resources could lead to anti-competitive practices. Since the market is still in its infancy and the activities of undertakings are predominantly local, there have been few interactions and clashes between them so far. Therefore, many problems may go unnoticed by market participants.
With further growth and expansion of the market, competition problems and barriers to entry for new or expanding market participants may emerge, which have developed or been deliberately created already in the early stages of the market. The Authority found that while individual questionable activities have been observed, no widespread or highly aggressive practices have been identified at this time that would require immediate intervention. It is important to increase the awareness of both market participants and related markets so that undertakings would know how to avoid anti-competitive practices and detect unfair practices in the activities of other market participants.
The Competition Authority emphasises that attention must be paid to bottlenecks in the sector already at the early stages of the market in order to prevent competition issues and market problems from taking root and to avoid a situation where intervention only takes place when damage to market development and market participants has already occurred.
The Authority made several recommendations to the state and local governments, distribution network operators, real estate owners and developers, recharging point operators, and undertakings that simultaneously provide electricity and charging services. The recommendations aim to improve the functioning of the market, ensure the long-term and sustainable development of public charging services, prevent competition issues and unreasonable barriers to entry, and thereby enable consumers to make more informed choices better suited for them.
The wider adoption of electric vehicles and the development of charging infrastructure play a central role in achieving environmental goals as well as in modernising the transport sector. The Competition Authority considers it important to prevent potential market issues, to support fair competition and ensure the sustainable development of the charging infrastructure market. Therefore, the Competition Authority will continue to monitor the electric vehicle charging infrastructure market and assess sector developments, considering its strategic importance in a multi-decade perspective.