June 19 (SeeNews) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) approved a 40 million euro ($43.7 million) loan to Bulgarian-based electric vehicle charging (EVC) stations operator Eldrive for the deployment of 10,574 EVC stations in Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania and Latvia, the bank said.
The project has a total cost of 174 million euro, the EIB said in a notice published on its website last week.
"The aim is to speed up the electrification of road transport in Europe, by providing EVC infrastructure and making EV stations widely and easily available, thus contribute to fight climate change and air pollution," the bank said.
The project contributes to the EU Green Deal objective to reach one million public EV chargers and alternative fuel refuelling stations in the EU by 2025. It also supports the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy target of one million EV public recharging points in the EU by 2025 and 3 million by 2030, it added.
The signing of the loan agreement with EIB and the disbursement of the financing are to be finalised at a later date, in line with the steps required by the lender's project cycle.
Eldrive, a wholly-owned unit of Bulgarian company eMobility International, has over 800 EV charging points installed in Bulgaria, Romania and Lithuania.