European support for e-mobility transition with EV-charging operator Allego
- EIB invests EUR 40 million, backed by the Juncker Plan, in Allego a provider and operator of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, active around Europe.
- Financing to support Allego’s growth and expansion of charging stations and services in Europe.
The European Investment Bank has agreed to provide EUR 40 million as quasi equity in growth financing to Allego Holding BV, a Dutch operator of charging stations for electric vehicles. The EIB loan benefits from the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the central part of the Investment Plan for Europe, the Juncker Plan.
The financing of the EIB supports the upcoming investments in the extension of the normal, fast and high power charging infrastructure, installed and distributed over Allego’s countries of operation. Making EV charging stations more widely and easily available, will help fight climate change and air pollution.
“Our support to Allego shows Europe’s commitment to support the transition towards clean mobility.” said EIB vice-president Ambroise Fayolle. “Not only have we financed research into electric vehicle propulsion, we also support the EU’s battery alliance by financing tangible projects. Financing making charging infrastructure more widely available is only logical in that sense. Allego is an independent, emerging electro-mobility infrastructure company, with a unique approach which we’re happy to support.”
“I congratulate Allego on seizing the financing opportunity offered by the Juncker Plan, after having already secured grants under the Connecting Europe Facility for the expansion of its networks of charging hubs. The shift towards low-emission mobility requires sustained investments, investments that match our ambitions, in order to develop innovative solutions for electro-mobility in Europe.” added Violeta Bulc, EU Commissioner for Transport.
“We are very proud that the EIB supports our ambition to create an open and accessible EV charging market in Europe. Our charging solutions and EV Cloud services see to it that everyone can charge their car, irrespective of the brand they drive. We work towards a market in which the EV driver experience seamless cross border mobility and has full freedom of choice to determine the source of energy, way of payment and services he wants. The EIB joins us in this journey, says Anja van Niersen, CEO Allego.”
Technically speaking, the EIB will make a 17-year quasi-equity investment to Opera Charging BV, a co-investment vehicle set up by Meridiam Investments, in favour of Allego Holding BV as final beneficiary. Allego ranks among the major international Charging Point Operators with nearly 12.000 charging points to date already in operation, and works in partnership with different sectors and industries.
Allego is developing, and will implement through a dedicated project finance structure, the pan-European MEGA-E(Metropolitan Greater Areas Electrified) project, which aims to deploy ultra-fast charging locations in at least 10 European metropolitan areas. The project was awarded EUR 29 million from the European Commission as part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Blending Call.
Source: eib.org
