The head of Slovenian rail passenger operator SŽ – Potniški promet, Darja Kocjan, and member of the Board at Petrol, Jože Bajuk, unveiled an electric vehicle (EV) charging station on 15 June 2023 at the main rail station’s car park in Ljubljana. The charging station can accommodate up to 14 vehicles at a time and includes both slow and fast chargers.
Slovenske železnice teamed up with Petrol to install new charging points in Ljubljana to encourage more EVs onto the road. There are a total of two fast charging points rated at 50kW, which use direct current (DC) to supply power to your EV, and five slow chargers, which operate at 22kW and use alternating current (AC) from the grid. A total of six additional charging points are in the works, which will be able to accommodate up to 12 vehicles.
At the unveiling ceremony, Kocjan pointed out that rail is already the leading form of green public transport with the lowest carbon footprint amongst other modes. She also noted that the electric trainsets purchased recently helped reduce emissions even more, and that another contract for the purchase of 20 new trains had been signed just the other day. She added that, location-wise, the EV charging station is installed so as to combine the use of bicycles, rail and other modes of sustainable transport. »The new charging points let passengers park their EVs or city EVs at the rail station’s car park and continue their journey in Slovenia or to other countries by train,« Kocjan explained. She believed that supporting the move to electric vehicles is another step taken by SŽ towards reducing emissions.
Bajuk noted that the unveiling ceremony marked the completion of Urban-e, a joint project between Slovenske železnice and Petrol which was co-financed by the EU. He mentioned that Petrol is currently installing EV charging points along major road connections and on the mainline motorway to satisfy demand amongst long-distance transit passengers. As the network of EV charging points continues to grow, plans are also underway to improve the quality of EV charging.
