The market share of electrically powered vehicles increased from 0.1 percent to 0.5 percent in 2021 compared to 2020 based on the information revealed by Automotive Distributors Association (ODD) in Turkey. According to the announced plans of many brands, this number is expected to increase exponentially in 2022.

Although the chip crisis delays the market entry, it does not change the fact that 2022 will be the year of electrically powered vehicles for Turkey.

Following these developments and as a result the expected legal regulations in this field have also started to be made. Of course, the most important and ongoing need after electric vehicle sales will be charging. While the works to expand the charging infrastructure are continuing, the first step of the legislative work has been taken for the establishment of charging stations and the regulation of service conditions and the establishment of a free market in this area.

With the Law No. 7346 of 25 December 2021, there are important regulations for charging services and service conditions for electrically powered vehicles and the law basically regulates the rights and obligations of individuals and institutions that will operate in this field.

With this law, a definition of new type of license under the name of “charging network operator license” has entered into the Electricity Market Legislation for natural or legal persons who will provide charging service and operate the charging network by opening access to the charging network.

The issue of whether the said license will be nationwide or regional and other application procedures and principles will be determined by the directives and secondary legislation to be issued by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) within 3 months. These developments and preparations show that this sector and its operation will be subject to strict rules, just like other sectors that are subject to energy market rules.

Another important regulation in this area is the issue of opening a tender which is a pre-qualification assessment for the issuance of a charging network operator license.

On the other hand, the establishment of charging stations is dependent on the certificates to be issued by the license holder of the charging network operator operating in the relevant charging network. The task of making projections regarding the need for new charging stations was given to electricity distribution companies. The projection will be made every 2 years.

For those who have already started to do this business and currently provide charging services, 4-month transition period has been granted, starting with the issuance of the secondary legislation, in order to comply with the new regulations.

As the basic element of the free market that is aimed to be formed in this area, the price of the charging service will be freely determined by the charging network operator within the framework of the procedures and principles to be published by EMRA.

Finally, with the said Law, the “Free Access Platform”, a platform where all existing charging stations can be registered and monitored instantly by EMRA, will be put into practice.