IN Brief:
- GreenWay will expand fast and ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure across Poland, Slovakia, and Croatia.
- The EBRD is providing €35m as part of a wider €113m financing package.
- Central and eastern Europe’s public charging buildout is moving into larger, debt-backed infrastructure programmes.
GreenWay has secured financing to expand public EV charging infrastructure across Poland, Slovakia, and Croatia, with support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The EBRD is providing a €35m loan as part of a wider €113m financing package. The funding will support the installation of 2,700 fast and ultra-fast public charge points by 2028, with deployment focused on densely populated areas and transport-heavy routes.
The programme is backed by a first-loss guarantee from the European Union under InvestEU. GreenWay already operates more than 3,000 public charge points across its core markets, and the new investment is intended to strengthen public charging coverage in central and eastern Europe.
Electricity supplied to the charging network will be sourced from renewables, adding a clean power procurement element to the infrastructure programme. As charging networks grow, the energy supply behind high-power assets is becoming more prominent in procurement, reporting, and long-term operating strategies.
Fast and ultra-fast charging requires a more demanding delivery model than residential or workplace charging. Larger grid connections, transformer capacity, switchgear, civil works, earthing, protection, communications, payment systems, maintenance arrangements, and site host agreements all affect project cost and delivery pace.
Across Europe, charging infrastructure is becoming more technically diverse. Actemium’s Scottish rapid charging hubs, ABB E-mobility’s megawatt charging architecture, and battery-backed charging sites all point to a market that is splitting by power level, use case, grid connection strategy, and vehicle class. Read more: Actemium delivers Scottish rapid charging hubs and ABB E-mobility launches megawatt charging architecture.
The GreenWay financing points to a more mature investment model for public charging. Early deployment was often fragmented, grant-led, and concentrated in cities or higher-income EV markets. Larger debt-backed programmes treat charging infrastructure as a long-life energy asset, with utilisation forecasts, grid access, site quality, and operational reliability forming part of the investment case.
Central and eastern Europe presents a particular deployment challenge. Lower charging density can slow EV adoption, while lower EV penetration can make early-stage charging utilisation harder to predict. Public finance and risk-sharing structures can help bring infrastructure forward before the market reaches full commercial maturity.
The grid dimension will shape how quickly the rollout can scale. Fast and ultra-fast chargers can create substantial local loads, especially where several bays are grouped at highway, urban, or fleet-relevant locations. Connection availability, reinforcement requirements, peak demand management, and the possible use of storage will influence the cost and pace of deployment.
Cross-border charging also depends on operational consistency. Networks spanning Poland, Slovakia, and Croatia must support different traffic patterns, payment expectations, roaming arrangements, site conditions, and grid connection environments. Charger count alone will not determine the value of the network; uptime, maintenance response, driver access, and payment reliability will be just as important.
The project also reflects the wider infrastructure demands created by transport electrification. Public charging networks need equipment standardisation, installation capacity, software integration, energy procurement, and long-term service models. Those requirements place EV charging closer to mainstream power infrastructure delivery than to a consumer technology rollout.
By 2028, GreenWay’s planned expansion should add significant public charging capacity across three markets where infrastructure density remains a barrier to wider EV adoption. Its progress will be watched as a test of how quickly central and eastern Europe can close the charging gap through larger, finance-backed deployment programmes.
