By electric car on the off road
By 2040, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, electric cars will be so firmly entrenched in the market that they will amount to at least 54% of the total number of cars that will be sold in the world.
Electric cars are a world trend. Their sales are growing, the infrastructure is developing - in recent years in Europe, the frequency of placement of electric charging stations on the routes was 1 station per 40 km, which exceeds the recommended 1 station per 65 km. And one such “gas station” accounts for about 6 vehicles with the recommended 10. In Norway, the share of electric cars (and hybrids) in sales of new cars already reaches 40%, in Iceland - 12%, in Sweden - 6%, in China - 2, 2%, in the USA - 1.2%. But in Germany, the program of promoting sales of electric vehicles failed. Despite the buyer’s proper premium of 4,000 euros when buying an electric car, instead of the planned 300 thousand electric cars last year they sold less than 45 thousand. But what about Ukraine, which in 2016 and 2017 fell into the top ten countries where the electric car market is developing fast paced?
Legislative relief
Since January 1, 2018, a special tax-free regime has been established for the import of new and old electric vehicles in Ukraine. Electric cars began to be brought to us from abroad without paying excise tax and value added tax. The duty on them was canceled since January 1, 2017, therefore import of a car with electric engines is now not subject to any taxes at all. Only tax left at the first registration. The goal of such a “green corridor” was to stimulate the sale of electric vehicles in our country. And this on average has reduced the prices of electric cars by about 17%. In reality, price cuts in many cases were even greater.
Last year, 617 new electric vehicles were sold, of which 8 were already commercial (LCV class). To understand - this is only 0.8% of the domestic automotive market, in 2017 - 0.45%. As for the old electric cars, their sales also increased last year. In 2018, we have implemented 5006 old electric cars. This is 8 times more than new ones, and this is almost 100% more than in 2017. Of these, 4,666 cars and 339 commercial. But this is only 3.4% of the used car market, and it was 3%. In general, electric cars make up about 5% of the auto market, and this figure is very low compared to other countries.
Due to the lowering of the age threshold, the assortment is somewhat “aged”. At the beginning of the second half of 2018, the ratio of new and old electric vehicles that were sold on the Ukrainian market was 8.72% and 91.28%, respectively. Compared to 2017, the percentage of new electric cars has decreased. In 2017, the ratio was 12.5% and 87.5%. By the end of 2018, the share of new electric cars increased slightly. Now - 11% and 89%. But it is still less than in 2017, when electric cars did not have such ideal tax conditions as they are now. Another interesting fact: in the top five of the most popular new electric vehicles - two models of unofficial. The very five looks like this: BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, Hyundai Ioniq, Tesla Model X, KIA Soul. However, the growth of the market becomes noticeable if we take a longer period. Over 3 years - that is, from 2015 - the number of electric cars has grown by more than 1,500 percent! Not least thanks to zero customs clearance rates.
However, sales of commercial cars grew by as much as 8 times. We can say that the trend of 2018 was the growth in sales of freight electric vehicles. Among the models of old passenger electric cars, as in 2017, the leading Nissan Leaf. The commercial Renault Kangoo ZE broke into second place. The third position - at the BMW i3, the fourth - in the Tesla Model S, the fifth - Mercedes-Benz B-Class EV. On the other hand, the park is growing commercial electric vehicles. The companies themselves have made charges for corporate parking lots and are launching electric vehicles along urban routes. The savings are obvious: no one else drains the fuel and does not deviate from the route. And the maintenance of electric vehicles is easier. Therefore, in 2019, we can expect even greater growth of commercial electric parks.
What is the problem?
As you can see, Ukrainian motorists are in no hurry to massively change to electric cars, even if they are exempt from all taxes. Among the main reasons is the initially high cost of electric cars, which cannot be compared with “Euroblats”. Certified service today is not available to all owners of electric vehicles. For example, the Nissan Leaf, the most popular electric car in Ukraine today, still does not have a corresponding service station. That's because the car is not officially sold in Ukraine, it is imported mostly used. Experts say that this is due to the fact that Nissan is not yet ready to develop the appropriate infrastructure.
While electric cars are considered cars mainly for trips within the city. The battery capacity does not allow owners of new products to travel far from home, and there are still too little refueling on intercity highways. Of course, you can find a regular outlet at gasoline stations and in roadside cafes. That's just the time to charge the car in this case will be 8-10 hours. But, as Oleg Nazarenko, general director of the All-Ukrainian Association of Automobile Importers and Dealers, says, the appearance of specialized charging stations on Ukrainian roads is only a matter of time. Businesses only need to wait for a critical mass of owners of such cars to appear in the country.
“The more electric cars there are, the more businessmen who want to install an electric charging station will be. Basically, electric cars are bought by people who already have a car to travel around Ukraine, and those who at least have a garage to put the car on charge for the night, or who live in private houses, ”notes Nazarenko.
It is the organization of “civilized” charging in sleeping areas that Nazar Simonite-David, co-founder of the Tesla Club and the Go To-U startup, considers the main task today. “An important issue is to solve the problem of the lack of charging stations at night in sleeping areas,” the entrepreneur believes. However, it emphasizes that this issue is relevant not only for Ukraine. “It may look ridiculous, but even in Europe, it’s common practice to throw an extension cord out of a window in order to charge a car,” Simimonite David says.
What to do?
Affected the popularity of these cars and the lack of a developed network of charging stations. In addition, one more incentive has practically disappeared - free charging of electric cars. And at the hotel charging stations already announced such a tariff that the economic sense in the operation of electric cars disappears altogether. However, in this segment there has been the most dynamic movement.
Toll stations are beginning to be in demand. The importance of their installation is gradually recognized in large networks of gas stations. For example, in early 2018, the Fast Charger charges, capable of charging the lithium-ion battery by 80% in half an hour, began to be actively installed in SOCAR. According to the company's calculations, only in the first quarter of the year the demand for them increased by 50%.
“This is a common phenomenon when our client goes to drink coffee or to have a snack on a doner kebab, and during this time his electric car has already“ refreshed itself ”. Moreover, such stations provide a safer charging process, ”said Igor Orlov, director of the SOCAR-Ukraine retail branch. Now such charges are in Kiev and Kiev, Lviv and Odessa regions.
There are already separate networks of electric stations. For example, in Ukraine, in 2015, start-up stations of the TOKA network began to open. Today there are 40 in Kiev, 26 in Odessa, 2 in Lviv, and one each in Ternopil and Uzhhorod. The network of high-speed charging stations for electric vehicles under the STRUM brand was launched in DTEK. Now more than 10 such stations operate in Kiev. Here 15-20-minute car charging will provide 50-100 km of run. A charge for country trips already offer all the major gas stations brands in Ukraine.
At the same time, infrastructure and its development should be promoted by national policy. And now it is actively promoted by the main automotive company in the country - the Bogdan Motors Corporation. Here they have already stated that Ukraine has prospects for the production of its own electric cars, and thanks to its natural resources and enterprises it can lead the list of leaders in this field of automotive industry. “Ukraine has rich deposits of lithium and cobalt. The Ministry of Infrastructure believes that this may allow it to become a world center for the production of lithium batteries and electric cars. “Bogdan”, in turn, supports the development of “green” engineering, as it will attract new investments and will positively affect both the economy of the country and the environment, ”said the press service of the company.
They support the intentions of “Bogdan” to master this trend in the government. According to the head of the Ministry of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan, it is now necessary for the Verkhovna Rada to support the bill on a 5-year strategy for the production of electric cars in Ukraine. This will open the way for the creation of tens of thousands of new high-paying jobs.
European recession
But the relatively "weak" results of stimulating the electric vehicle market are observed not only in our country. In Europe, they are increasingly saying that the timing of a complete transition to electric cars would be nice to correct. Or, in other words - move. The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) warns that the serious shortage and unbalanced distribution of charging points do not encourage consumers to buy electric cars. Today in the EU there are about 100,000 charging points for electric vehicles. And by 2025 they will need at least 2 million units, according to the most restrained estimates of the European Commission. This means that in the next 7 years there should be at least a twentyfold increase in the number of charging stations - despite the fact that now they seem to be enough. Moreover, the results of a recent ACEA study show that for all charging points existing in the EU today, 76% are concentrated in only four countries, which cover only 27% of the total EU area (Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK). And for example, such a big country like Romania has only 114 charging points, or 0.1% of the total EU.
