On 16 October 2026, Petar Mišković, Managing Partner at MSK Partners, spoke in Belgrade at Energy Law in Practice: Regulatory Framework and New Opportunities for the Legal Profession, a panel organised by the Serbian Bar Association. His presentation focused on fleet electrification, EV charging infrastructure and battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Serbia, examining how regulatory and contractual decisions affect the operation of these projects.
The programme also included Aleksandra Petrović and Milica Pešterić, partners at Refine Legal. Aleksandra addressed renewable energy regulation in Serbia and opportunities for legal advisers. Milica covered the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) obligations, standards and advice to businesses.
Start with how the system will be used
A fleet electrification project brings vehicle procurement, charging infrastructure, electricity supply and, potentially, battery storage into a single operational plan. The legal analysis needs to start with that plan: who will use the chargers, who will own and operate each asset, and how electricity will be purchased, stored and used.
Charging a company’s own vehicles, offering paid charging to third parties and operating storage as a separate commercial activity raise different questions. The intended model informs the assessment of regulatory requirements, including any licensing requirements, as well as the allocation of responsibilities between the parties. It also shapes the contracts needed to connect the various elements of the project.
For businesses planning EV charging infrastructure in Serbia, defining the operating model early helps identify the legal and technical dependencies that need to be resolved before equipment is ordered.
Resolve site and connection requirements before procurement
The right to use a depot or car park needs to support the planned installation and its operation over the project’s lifetime. Ownership or lease arrangements, any necessary consents, access for maintenance and the position at the end of the lease should therefore be reviewed alongside the technical design.
The applicable construction and permitting route depends on the proposed works and the project’s configuration. A charging installation with battery storage requires a project-specific assessment.
Existing connection capacity, other loads at the site and the conditions for any additional capacity also need to be understood.
These issues affect equipment selection, delivery dates and cost. Procurement contracts should reflect unresolved dependencies through agreed conditions and milestones, with responsibility allocated for obtaining approvals, preparing the site and coordinating connection works. This also helps address what happens if equipment arrives before the site can receive or operate it.
Contract for the performance of the connected system
Consider a hypothetical delivery business introducing electric vehicles at an existing depot, supported by chargers and a BESS. The operational objective is to prepare the vehicles for their scheduled morning routes. What happens if each device works individually, but the vehicles are not ready to leave?
Contracts need to address responsibility for integration and for investigating failures across interfaces. Functional acceptance should test the agreed operating scenario, including vehicle arrival times, initial battery charge, available power and other site demand. The required result and the assumptions on which it depends should be explicit.
That approach should carry through into warranties and service arrangements. Relevant issues include usable battery capacity over time, warranty commencement, response and repair times, agreed availability levels and remedies where performance falls short. The parties also need a workable procedure for resolving faults involving more than one supplier.
Software continuity deserves similar attention. Charging and storage operations may depend on control software, remote access and operational data. Contracts should address continued access, support and data availability, including arrangements for a change of service provider or the end of a software subscription.
These questions connect MSK Partners’ Automotive & Mobility practice with its Energy, Infrastructure & Sustainability practice, bringing together advice on mobility operations, project development, regulatory requirements and commercial contracts in Serbia.
