Poland's biggest fuel company pivots to EV charging as market heats up

Poland’s biggest fuel company is moving fast to build electric car charging spots. The country just became Europe’s hottest place for electric vehicles.

Orlen SA runs those red-and-white gas stations you see all over Eastern Europe. It just opened its first electric vehicle charging hub in Poland. It has eight super-fast charging stations made by Kempower Oyj. The company wants to add more than 10 of these setups this year. Then it’ll build another 50 over the next two years. That’s what Krzysztof Kaczynski told Bloomberg News. He’s Orlen’s electromobility executive director.

EVs get hot in Poland

Electric car sales in Poland have more than doubled during the first nine months of 2025. That’s the fastest growth in the European Union. But electric vehicles still make up just 9% of all new car sales in Poland. The EU average is 16%. Until a few weeks ago, Orlen only had slower charging stations in Poland.

“The number of electric cars will grow rapidly in Poland,” Kaczynski said. “Today, there are about 120,000 such vehicles but next year there could be twice as many and by 2030 this number could be close to one million.”

Orlen wants to triple its Polish charging network to about 3,700 charging points in 2030. Five years after that, they want 6,000 points. The company also plans to install another 4,000 points in other countries. This includes the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany.

Orlen pushes ahead despite tough competition

Poland’s government thinks the total number of charging points will hit 87,000 in 2030. Right now, Orlen is fourth in Poland’s EV charging market. It has an 8% share. GreenWay Polska, Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG and PowerDot Poland Sp zoo are ahead of it. That comes from F5A New Mobility Research and Consulting.

Orlen is a $33-billion company. It runs about 3,500 gas stations across seven countries. This puts it ahead of international rivals, getting ready for Poland’s EV switch. Big players like BP Plc and Shell Plc don’t have large EV charging networks in the country yet.

The move comes as the broader electric vehicle industry faces headwinds globally. American EV manufacturer Rivian recently cut 600 jobs, marking its second round of layoffs in two months as companies struggle with rising production costs and weak market conditions.

Orlen plans to use its gas station network to fight off competitors and keep costs down. Kaczynski said smart locations might lead to higher usage. Some competitors just “grab up land” and build EV chargers without thinking much about infrastructure or charging speeds.

“We don’t build the network just for statistics,” he said. “We are interested in how much electricity we can sell, and therefore whether a point is actually useful for travelers.”

Kaczynski said chargers need to be used about 9% of the time to make money. That’s a little more than two hours a day.

“No charging network in Poland has broken even yet,” he said. “Orlen’s electromobility business is on the right track to reach positive Ebitda within two years.”

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