The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility (AFIF) is a key EU funding instrument supporting the rollout of public charging and alternative fuel infrastructure across Europe, particularly for road transport. Managed centrally by CINEA under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), it has proven efficient, predictable, and aligned with AFIR targets.
With €2.3 billion allocated between 2021–2025 (€578 million remaining after February 2025), most funding has so far supported public EV charging (62%, both LDV and HDV) and hydrogen refueling (23%), though the latter offers limited impact per euro spent given its very limited role in the road sector.
The AFIF funds will be likely exhausted after the cut-off in June 2025 (small amounts may remain for the final cut-off in March 2026). This creates a looming funding gap for 2026–2027 which risks stalling infrastructure deployment during a critical phase of uptake of electric light and heavy duty vehicles. The EU must urgently secure €1.25 billion to bridge this gap, ideally through remaining funds in existing instruments like the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) or the Cohesion Fund (CF), to maintain progress toward the 2025 and 2030 AFIR goals. An initiative to fill the AFIF-gap should be a priority for Commissioner Tzitzikostas’ Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP).
Funds should be focused on deploying HDV charging along the TEN-T, closing the remaining TEN-T gaps in the LDV charging network (mainly in Southern, Central and Eastern countries), strengthening the LDV network where needed (urban nodes, large stations along the TEN-T) and all associated grid connections and battery energy storage systems. Furthermore, the Commission should provide flexibility for project deadlines to allow CPOs to fully implement projects and absorb the allocated funds.
Created in 2021 as a subprogram of the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the AFIF’s aim is to fund alternative fuels infrastructure for road, shipping, rail and aviation. Like all CEF funding, AFIF is centrally managed by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). The facility has proven to be an effective financing model for public charging.
AFIF’s first phase (“AFIF 1”) from 2021-2023 had a total budget of €1.575 billion of which €375 million were earmarked for the EU’s cohesion countries. By the end of 2023, €1.3 billion had been spent in five funding rounds. The remaining budget was increased to €1 billion for the second phase 2024-25 (“AFIF 2”).
In February 2025, the Commission announced that a total investment of €422 million was spent in the first funding round (or “cut-off”) of the second phase. The second cut-off for the second phase will be in June 2025, where the remaining budget of approximately €578 million in funding will be available. After that date, any remaining AFIF funding will be available for a third cut-off in March 2026. In total, €2.3 billion are being made available over 5 years.
T&E has analysed the past funding rounds to understand what projects benefited from AFIF’s support. In total, 167 projects (128 in the first phase and 39 in the second phase) have benefited from AFIF support during the period 2021-2024 during the two funding phases.
Over the period 2021-2024 (i.e. excludes the final rounds with a cut off in June 2025 and March 2026), public charging for light- and heavy duty vehicles received more than 60% of the total funding (€1.1 billion out of €1.7 billion), followed by hydrogen refueling stations (HRS) with 23% (€400 million).
Closing the 2025-2027 gap in AFIF:
Funding sources to close the gap:
