Prague is betting on these lampposts to realize its ambitious plan for EV chargers – Jalopnik

You know those lamps with USB connections that allow you to top up your phone’s battery? Prague wants to do that, but scaled up to streetlights and electric vehicle charging stations, catching up with the rapid pace that EV chargers are popping up in the US. In short, the capital of the Czech Republic is bypassing what could have been a major construction project and instead treating the renovation as replacing appliances, so installation speed shouldn’t be an issue.

In 2024, the city began installing 143 EV-ready streetlights in earnest. By 2026, Prague hopes to have 1,500 such lamps installed, with a target of 6,000 by 2030. Two years ago, there were only 2,400 EV charging points in the whole of the Czech Republic, but they only needed to serve the Czech Republic’s 22,000 registered electric cars, a drop in the ocean of the country’s 6.13 million registered passenger cars. This effort is based on future EV adoption, and it is not a shot in the dark. In 2020, electric car sales increased by 331%, a trend that Prague aims to shift from the realm of ‘early adoption excitement’ to ‘normal occurrence’.

All these infrastructure adjustments are the responsibility of Technology of the Capital Prague, the company that oversees Prague’s public lighting. His current job is to install the thick new cables that will support the enormous charging network. To accommodate these new, oversized iPhone-charging desk lamps, Prague must ensure its 3,000 miles of roads have power lines up to the task. Ultimately, they will serve at least a fifth of the 500,000 to 700,000 electric vehicles that the Czech Republic expects to have in use by 2030.

Since Volkswagen created cheating software for its diesels, an incident that had to be called ‘Dieselgate’ because the Watergate Hotel will forever lend half its name to scandals, the fuel’s popularity has waned. That’s especially true in the US, where the only diesels you can get in 2025 are large trucks, SUVs and vans.

However, in Europe there are still many diesels coming from the assembly line to the showrooms. The purchase rate of diesel cars has certainly fallen, from 52% of new cars sold in 2015 to 13.6% in 2023, but that is still almost double the adoption rate of plug-in hybrids (7.7%) and slightly less than battery electric vehicles (14.6%). In the case of the Czech Republic, much of this push for EV infrastructure is due to the fact that its population still loves diesels, to the point that it sells more diesel cars than any other country in the European Union. The country is trying to reverse that.

The specific environmental problem that Prague probably wants to tackle is smog. Although diesel engines generally emit less carbon dioxide than gas engines, diesel engines emit more nitrogen oxide unless they have reduction systems such as exhaust gas recirculation or diesel exhaust fluid injection. Of course, even if a vehicle has these systems, it still requires care and conscious owners to prevent pollution from increasing over the life of the vehicle.

The main problem with nitrous oxide is that it leads directly to smog, which can cause asthma, breathing problems, cancer, heart attacks and a whole host of other unpleasantness. Considering that Prague’s air currently contains 1.2 times the World Health Organization guidelines for particulate matter, not every Czech citizen may be aware of diesel maintenance.

A good idea is a good idea, and Prague is not alone in its desire to make charging more accessible to electric and plug-in hybrid owners. My hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, recently received a $3.1 million grant to install EV chargers in parking lots and public parks, with an emphasis on lower-income neighborhoods. Detroit is going the Prague route, with AT&T and Voltpost turning lampposts into internet-connected EV chargers. This internet connection is not only intended to charge your credit card; it allows the companies that manage the chargers to resolve software problems remotely.

Voltpost, by the way, is a company that specializes in converting street lights into Level 2 EV chargers, and has already brought its technology to other cities in Michigan, California, and Illinois, among others. You know what AT&T is, so we’ll skip that one.

With this increase in charging infrastructure, we hope it will allay the range fears of potential EV buyers. Zdeněk Hřib, Prague’s first deputy mayor for transport, said this Prague morning“Without accessible charging options, electromobility remains the privilege of a small group. Prague must ensure that every resident has the opportunity to make the transition.”

For car enthusiasts, all these new charging stations will have one negative effect: it’s the fear of range that governments want to allay, which is likely to keep used Kia EV6 GTs cheap. The model debuted with 576 hp and Car and driver achieved a 0-60 time of 3.2 seconds, although it only had an EPA-estimated range of 207 miles. But what difference does a range of 205 miles make if there are chargers everywhere? Seriously, buy one while they still cost around $30,000!