Sale of electric cars in Slovakia in 2021: pure despair – PRAVDA.sk

Many automakers argue that they will only sell electric cars. However, almost no one in Slovakia wants them. It probably won’t work without subsidies.

We are lagging far behind Europe in expanding the share of electric cars. (Il. Photo)

It may not even be as important how electric cars were sold, not more precisely, in 2021, but how they will be sold by 2025 or 2030, respectively. “With internal combustion cars and we will ride here on ecological and emission-free electric cars. Almost unison has been heard from our political leaders about how great the European Fit for 55 plan is and how good it is that we will get rid of harmful emissions from internal combustion engines.

Emission policy

Let’s look at it in more detail. The Fit for 55 plan is a package of various legislative instruments and documents designed to help EU member states reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. It consists of 14 basic documents, such as reducing car emissions, using renewable resources. energy, emissions trading, setting incentive tax rates for the use of “green energy” and the like.

The automotive industry is hit hardest by emission reductions of all industries. The plan also includes a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the reduction of CO2 emissions from cars, to which Slovakia also subscribes. This says that, according to the original proposal, passenger car emissions should fall by 15 percent by 2020 compared to 2020 and by 37.5 percent by 2030, and even by 55 percent under the new, more ambitious proposal.

Read more The best-selling cars of 2021: Fabia is the first, the Hyundai i30 beats Octavia!

Depending on the fuels we prefer in Slovakia so far, these will be difficult goals to meet. The sale of electric cars is stagnating significantly, and if subsidies do not come, it will not be any different. Overall sales of low-emission vehicles, ie electric cars and plug-in hybrids, reached only three percent in Slovakia in 2021, which is well below the European average.

Less is said about what this means in practice. It’s annoying. “The goals set out in these documents are really ambitious and binding for us, unfortunately the current situation is far from satisfactory. Slovakia is lagging behind in all important categories, “points out the chairman of the Association of the Automotive Industry (ZAP SR) Alexander Matušek.

Therefore, in order to meet our commitments, 51,520 low-emission vehicles (almost electric cars and plugin-hybrids) should drive on our roads in 2025, as only these can have average carbon dioxide emissions below 50 grams per kilometer). If we really want to reduce passenger car emissions by 55 percent by 2030, then 236,520 should drive them. And do you know how many of them were registered in Slovakia by 2020? Only 3,715. If we add the sales for 2021, we can say that there are currently less than six thousand low-emission vehicles registered in Slovakia.

Photo: ZAP SR

elektro4 Development of Slovakia’s vehicle fleet for low-emission vehicles (electric cars and plug-in hybrids).

The best-selling electric cars

This means that if we want to meet our publicly declared commitments to the European Union’s intentions, the Slovaks should buy more than 45,000 electric cars and plug-in hybrids in the next four years, an average of 11,400 per year. And you know how many Slovakia registered last year? A total of 2,271, of which 1,104 were electric cars (market share 1.46 percent) and 1,167 plug-in hybrids (market share 1.54 percent). And let’s not forget about hydrogen cars, they were also sold in Slovakia last year. However, only one was sold.

Sales of electric cars – 10 most successful brands in Slovakia in 2021:

The strong position of the Mladá Boleslav carmaker in Slovakia is confirmed by the sale of the Enyaq iV model. In 2021, it became the absolute sales unit among electric cars with 187 vehicles sold. The full-fledged electric SUV was so convincing that the sixth electric car sold in Slovakia was the Enyaq iV.

However, we are still very far from the European standard in terms of sales of low-emission vehicles. Just for comparison – while the average number of new vehicle registrations by fuel (BEV + PHEV, ie electric vehicles + plug-in hybrid vehicles) reached 18.9 percent in the EU in the first three quarters of 2021, in Slovakia it was only 3 percent of the total number of new vehicles registered.

The situation is similarly unfavorable in Slovakia with the construction of the necessary infrastructure. In 2020, we registered 820 charging stations in Slovakia, the ambition is to have them by 2025 and 5,500 and by 2030 we will need up to 27,000.

The good news is that in Slovakia, however, thanks to the resources from the recovery plan, the network of public charging stations should be significantly expanded. It envisages a total investment of 50 million euros and the construction of more than 3,000 charging points. At the same time, according to the Ministry of Economy, three hydrogen filling stations should be built.

And what next? The absolute priority in Slovakia should be the introduction of a stable subsidy scheme to support the purchase of electric cars. It must no longer be just a lottery, but the support must be eligible and available to anyone who meets the conditions for its provision. Only in this way will it be possible for individuals and companies to start seriously planning the purchase of electric cars.

“If we want to ensure the availability of mobility for the citizens of Slovakia, it is necessary to start implementing incentive schemes for the development of mobility and related charging and refueling infrastructure so that modern alternative technologies become more attractive and accessible to the average population. In Slovakia we say a lot, by increasing fees, not by support and motivation, “added Alexander Matušek.