Decree establishing the infrastructure for alternative transport fuels

Slovenia finally transposed the Directive 2014/94/EU on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure into national law (hereinafter: ““Directive”) by adopting the Decree establishing the infrastructure for alternative transport fuels, which entered into force on 12 August 2017 (hereinafter: “Decree”).

While the adopted Decree regulates the technical requirements for charging points and the obligation of distribution system operators to develop charging points, there are certain requirements for sellers of motor vehicles as well. Sellers must provide motor vehicle users with clear and relevant information on motor vehicles which can be regularly filled up using fuels available on the market, or recharged at recharging points. Such information shall be made available by the sellers and in motor vehicle manuals, at refuelling and recharging points and on motor vehicles. Moreover, the Ministry of Infrastructure shall provide users of motor vehicles with a database on the geographic location of the refuelling and recharging points.

In Slovenia only 0.4% of app. 1 million passenger cars are considered as battery vehicles, but this number has been steadily growing in recent years and is expected to grow in future. There are currently 227 publicly available charging points for electric vehicles, 27 of them are placed in the TEN-T network, 1 is for hydrogen, 115 are for liquefied natural gas and 4 are for compressed natural gas.

Slovenia has already made some steps to adapting its legislative framework by providing tax measures, incentives, subsidies and other soft measures aimed at increasing the use of alternative fuel vehicles. This has also been reflected in the growing number of electric vehicles, recharging points and the booming electric car-sharing system.