RetailSonar, a Ghent-based location-intelligence firm best known for advising retailers where to place physical sites, has turned its modelling tools on a new kind of storefront: the public EV charging station.
After two years of analysis supported by Flemish and European innovation funding, the firm concludes that the region’s public charging network will need to expand by threefold to keep pace with the expected growth in electric cars. Not just in the number of plugs, but in total charging capacity and, crucially, in the right places.
Today, Flanders counts roughly 68,000 publicly accessible charging points, representing an estimated total charging capacity of about 924 megawatts.
Number of EVs to double by 2030
According to RetailSonar, that is sufficient for the current EV fleet. But the picture changes rapidly when looking ahead. By 2030, the number of electric vehicles on Flemish roads is expected to roughly double, pushing required public charging capacity to around 1,508 megawatts.
By 2050, the study projects demand could exceed 4,400 megawatts. In practical terms, that implies a tripling of the public charging network within the next five years and an even more substantial expansion thereafter.
At first glance, that warning appears to clash with recent headlines. 2025 was a record year for charging infrastructure in Flanders. The total number of public and semi-public charging points climbed past 72,600, and growth in ultra-fast chargers accelerated sharply.
The number of ultra-fast connectors — capable of delivering at least 150 kilowatts and typically used along highways and major traffic axes — jumped by nearly 1,400 in a single year. Flanders now comfortably exceeds European minimum requirements for fast-charging coverage along major corridors.
Yet the apparent contradiction dissolves once the nature of the shortage becomes clear. RetailSonar’s study is not primarily about fast charging or motorway travel. It focuses on everyday charging demand: where people park for hours, or overnight, and expect to charge without planning their day around it.
93% are slower chargers
More than 93 percent of Flemish public charging points are still ‘normal’ chargers, typically delivering 11 or 22 kilowatts. These slower chargers form the backbone of urban and residential charging, and it is precisely this layer of the network that risks falling behind demand.
Fast chargers, by design, serve many vehicles briefly. They are essential for long-distance travel, logistics, and fleet operations, but they cannot substitute for residential charging in dense neighborhoods.
A single ultra-fast charger may deliver enormous power, yet it cannot solve the problem of dozens of residents in a street without private driveways all needing to charge overnight.
RetailSonar’s modelling shows that shortages are most likely to emerge not at the national or regional scale, but within municipalities and even within individual neighborhoods, where overcapacity in one district can coexist with near-absence in another.
This distinction helps explain another striking trend. While the absolute number of public charging points continues to rise, the ratio of chargers to electric vehicles has been falling.
A few years ago, there were roughly four public charging points for every ten electric cars in Flanders. By 2025, that figure had dropped to about two per ten cars. The network is growing, but the EV fleet is growing faster and not always where chargers are easiest to install.
Belgium’s regional divide adds further complexity. Flanders remains far ahead of Wallonia and Brussels in both charging infrastructure and EV uptake, hosting roughly three-quarters of all public chargers in the country.
Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region are catching up, but from a much lower base. This creates a two-track challenge at the national level. While Flanders must focus on capacity, grid constraints, and neighborhood balance, the other regions still face the more basic task of scaling coverage and density.
Home charging is a silent giant
Home charging, meanwhile, remains the silent giant in the system. For homeowners with a driveway and for employees with a company car and dedicated parking, private charging works smoothly and covers most daily needs. But for apartment dwellers, renters, and residents of older urban neighbourhoods, access to private charging is far more limited.
In multi-owner apartment buildings, installing chargers in shared parking areas often requires collective approval, triggering concerns about cost-sharing, grid capacity, insurance, and safety.
Landlords, meanwhile, are frequently reluctant to invest in charging infrastructure for tenants who may move on. As a result, a growing segment of the population risks being structurally disadvantaged in the transition to electric mobility, not because of a lack of interest, but because of governance and ownership constraints rather than technology.
This imbalance explains why public charging plays such a central role in long-term planning exercises. Public chargers are no longer just a backup for long trips; they are increasingly a substitute for missing private infrastructure in dense cities.
Without a strong public network at the neighborhood level, electrification risks becoming a two-tier system: effortless for homeowners and company-car drivers, constrained for urban residents and renters.
The more electric driving spreads into dense cities and mixed neighbourhoods, the less society can rely on home charging alone. Public infrastructure must absorb a growing share of everyday charging demand, not just occasional top-ups.
