How will the electric vehicle fleet grow in Russia?

In 2021, the world is witnessing an explosive growth in sales of passenger electric vehicles, and the numbers confirm that the topic of electric transport is not just a hype, but a quite tangible reality. Russia, of course, lags behind the world leaders in electric mobility: by the middle of this year, 12.3 thousand electric vehicles were registered in our country (there are already 10 million units in the world). But, according to the dynamics, this segment will also grow in the coming years in Russia.

As a part of the development of electric transport in our country, today there are also tasks for the production of electric vehicles in our territory, at our domestic enterprises. In the arsenal so far there are only projects of KAMAZ, GAZ and several other startups. At the same time, there is an acute question: will these proposed models be able to compete with the imported ones? Another challenge is the upcoming large investments in infrastructure: a huge number of charging stations are to be built.

Factors that currently hinder the development of electric transport in Russia: the high cost of electric vehicles with a low level of income of the population; a significant price advantage of classic fuels in Russia in compare with the EU and Eastern Europe (with their gasoline prices, the economic benefits of electric engines are obvious, for us - not everywhere and not always); long distances and climatic conditions; the lack of analogues of classic sedans or hatchbacks in the line of domestic electric vehicles; underdeveloped infrastructure (the ability to charge an electric vehicle mainly only in an urban environment); the possible abolition of the duty-free import regime for electric vehicles from 2022 in the complete absence of localized production.