To be installed on a TEN-T corridor under AFIR in 2026, a DC charger must deliver at least 150 kW individually, sit inside a charging pool meeting the corridor’s aggregate power threshold (400 kW on the core network today, 600 kW from 2027), accept contactless card payment without a subscription, expose real-time availability and pricing via open APIs, and maintain at least 98% annual uptime. Anything that misses one of those five pillars will not qualify, regardless of how well it charges a car. The rest of this article breaks down what that means for hardware specification, firmware, and procurement decisions over the next 18 months.
What AFIR Actually Mandates — And Why TEN-T Is the Hard Test
The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) entered force on 13 April 2024 and replaced the older AFID directive with binding, member-state-agnostic targets. The TEN-T network — the EU’s trans-European transport corridors — is where the strictest density and power rules apply, because it represents the backbone for long-distance EV travel.
The core requirement most operators already know: every 60 km along the TEN-T core network, there must be a publicly accessible fast-charging pool serving light-duty vehicles. What gets missed is that AFIR defines a pool, not a station. A pool is the sum of all chargers at one location, and it must meet an aggregate kW threshold AND contain at least one charge point rated 150 kW or above.
For heavy-duty vehicles (HDV), the rules ramp up sharply. By 2030, the TEN-T core network needs HDV charging pools every 120 km delivering 3,600 kW with at least two 350 kW points each. Truck depots and corridor stops procured today must therefore be future-proofed for that ceiling — not just the 2025 baseline.
The 150 kW Floor Is Not Negotiable
If you remember one number, make it 150. AFIR sets 150 kW as the minimum individual charge point rating that counts toward a TEN-T pool’s required aggregate power. A site with eight 50 kW units does not qualify as a 400 kW pool under AFIR, even though the math works. At least one charger in the pool must be rated 150 kW or higher, and from 2027 the core network requires at least two ≥150 kW units per pool.
Practically, this kills the appeal of stocking older 60–120 kW DC chargers for corridor projects. Distributors selling into highway CPO tenders in 2026 should be focusing on 180–400 kW units with liquid-cooled cables and CCS2 connectors. We covered the cable side in depth in our guide on liquid-cooled vs. air-cooled DC charging cables — at 250 A continuous, air cooling becomes a thermal liability fast.
For example, a Romanian CPO building out a Bucharest-Sibiu corridor site in early 2026 found that two 180 kW dispensers plus one 360 kW unit on a shared 540 kW power cabinet satisfied AFIR’s 400 kW threshold and gave them headroom for the 2027 600 kW step-up — without re-pulling MV cable.
Ad-Hoc Payment: Why Your Charger Needs a Real Card
