The deployment of electric car charging stations throughout Turkiye is due to accelerate with the adoption of regulation that will enable electric car drivers to access public charging stations, whose price will be regulated on a kilowatt-hour basis, head of Turkiye's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) told Anadolu Agency exclusively.
The regulation covers the rules for charging units and stations and charging services, Mustafa Yilmaz, head of EMRA, said.
One of these rules stipulates that charging stations connect to a charging network.
Other conditions specify that companies applying for a charging network operator license need to have a minimum capital of 4.5 million Turkish liras and are also required to deploy at least 50 charging units.
The regulation also obliges companies to designate at least 5% of the charging units as fast chargers, of at least a capacity of DC 50 kilowatts.
Moreover, at least 50% of the charging stations on highways are required to have a minimum capacity of DC 50 kilowatts, he said.
'Electric car charging services will be open to all users, with prices based on kilowatt-hours only. Stations cannot charge users any extra costs,' Yilmaz said.
An online platform called Free Access Platform, which EMRA will establish, will allow users to see availability at stations to make charging reservations, station locations, charging capacity, costs, and payment methods.
Furthermore, a new loyalty scheme will ensure users can avail of 20% price discounts.
These charging stations will be open to renewable power and storage integration, he said.
At the end of 2021, Turkey had over 6,000 electric cars on the road and around 3,500 charging units.
Istanbul had the highest number of charging units with 1,265, followed by Ankara and Izmir with 320 and 235, respectively.
By Nuran Erkul Kaya
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr