The Russian government has approved a new plan for electric transport development into 2030 that will be implemented in two stages. At the end of the first stage, the plan calls for production of at least 25,000 electric vehicles and the launching of 9,400 charging stations.
By 2030, 10% of all new vehicles should be electrical, and the number of charging stations should increase to 72,000. In Russia, by 2030 it’s planned to launch production of accumulator battery cells, and to build 1,000 hydrogen fuel stations for vehicles.
The total budget for the plan is estimated at about US$ 8 billion (591 Bln Rubles), and more than 80% are from non-budget sources.
The government plans to develop the market for electric cars, using programs to stimulate demand such as privileged leasing and sponsored credit. Under the plan, owners would pay reduced transport fees, and purchases would be supported by a 25% discount for localized models.
The Russian electric transport market is well behind the global market. The total fleet of electric cars counts up to 11,000 vehicles (less than 1% of the total fleet).
There are only two actual electric car projects – private Zetta and KAMA, developed by KAMAZ and St Petersburg polytechnical university, but none of them are in mass production.
The situation with electric buses is better. There are three OEMs doing mass electric bus production – GAZ, KAMAZ and Volgabus. The annual production is about 300 units.
PSR Analysis: The project is interesting because it includes not only electric cars, but he hydrogen vehicles as well, plus buses and trucks. However, the result of a similar program for natural gas vehicles is very bad. Since 2013, when the NG program was approved, almost nothing has been done. PSR
Maxim Sakov is Market Consultant – Russia Operations for Power Systems Research
