EV charging in Italy — networks, apps, and the autostrada map

Italy's public-charging network grew rapidly from a small base between 2019 and 2024 and now ranks in the mid-table of European deployment. The PUN (Piattaforma Unica Nazionale) national platform — run by GSE (Gestore dei Servizi Energetici) — lists every public charging point in the country, with two large CPOs accounting for the majority of the network.

Coverage is meaningfully better in the north than the south. The Po Valley, Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna have dense urban and motorway charging; Calabria, Basilicata and Sicily are catching up but long-distance EV travel south of Naples still requires careful route planning around the high-power stops.

Main charging networks in Italy

Enel X Way (the e-mobility arm of Enel) is Italy's largest CPO by a wide margin, with tens of thousands of public chargers across the country — mostly 22 kW AC and 50–150 kW DC. Plenitude On The Road (formerly Be Charge, the Eni Plenitude subsidiary) is the second-largest, with a similar AC/DC mix and a dense urban footprint. A2A E-Moving covers Milan and the Lombard cities. Free To X is the HPC arm of the Autostrade per l'Italia concessionaire, with 300 kW dispensers at most A-road service areas.

Tesla Supercharger has a meaningful Italian footprint, mostly along the spine routes and the north. Ionity covers the cross-Alpine corridors and the autostrade major exits. Duferco Energia and Repower have smaller but visible networks in the north. Q8 Mobility and Eni Plenitude run forecourt DC at their respective fuel-station chains. Tesla Italia Srl. is the legal entity name you'll see on raw data feeds; on Plugsquare it groups under the Tesla brand card.

Autostrada vs. provincial roads

The autostrade are well-served. Free To X's 300 kW HPC has rolled out at most Aree di servizio on the A1 (Milan → Naples), A4 (Turin → Trieste), A14 (Bologna → Bari) and A22 (Brennero → Modena). Ionity, Tesla and Enel X Way layer additional HPC at the bigger intersections. South of Naples on the A2 the coverage thins out — you'll still find HPC, but with fewer alternatives per stop, so route planning matters more.

Urban DC is sparser than in the north of Europe but improving fast. Milan, Turin, Bologna, Florence and Rome all have multi-operator HPC hubs near commuter belts. Most provincial-road charging is 22 kW AC at municipal sites or 50 kW DC at retail parks.

Apps, tariffs, and the abbonamento question

Enel X Way and Plenitude both sell direct tariffs that are meaningfully cheaper than their roaming-partner prices. Enel X Way offers a 'Spazio Enel X' monthly subscription that drops the per-kWh price for users above a usage threshold; Plenitude has similar volume tariffs. For occasional drivers, the ad-hoc 'No abbonamento' price is competitive without locking in a monthly fee.

Roaming via international EMSPs (Plugsurfing, Chargemap, Maingau Auto-Strom) works across Italy but is usually pricier than direct. Tesla owners use the Tesla app for Supercharger; non-Tesla cars can also pay through the Tesla app at sites that have been opened.

What's on the Plugsquare map for Italy

Plugsquare's Italian dataset comes from the PUN national platform via the GSE-administered API. Operators visible include Enel X Way, Plenitude On The Road (under both publisher prefixes — BEC and PLN), A2A E-Moving, Free To X, Ionity, Tesla, Repower, Duferco Energia, Q8, Eni Plenitude, and a long tail of regional and city brands. Tesla Italia Srl. rows collapse into the Tesla brand card so the legend stays clean.