Tesla’s achievements on the electric cars front should scare European manufacturers as Tesla comes with a cheap 500 km high-powered car which, unfortunately, can not benefit from the generous 10,000-euro subsidy offered by the Romanian state, because the US company has no office in Romania. However, Tesla forces other European producers and suppliers to move faster, says Daniel Vlad, executive director of e-mobility, an equipment and e-stations supply and maintenance firm.
“Romania has to follow the same trend. Europe is moving. For example, a concern consisting of E.ON, MOL, BMW and Nissan have obtained 20 million euros in European funds in order to installate 200 electric charging stations in Central and Eastern Europe, 40 in Romania. Things are moving and we hope that this year the car sales will also go well, and the state will deliver all the promised 1,000 eco-tickets,” said Vlad for energynomics.ro.
He claims that e-mobility has prepared an application for some of the existing stations in Bucharest, which will identify on the map whether the stations are occupied or not, also offering info on other parameters, including a payment solution, where appropriate. For the time being, only two of the e-stations in Bucharest charge fees for the energy they offer (at an estimated cost of 1 leu per kWh). “The office buildings and the big shopping centers are the most receptive to offering customers e-car charging services,” Vlad said.
And commercial fleets would grow exponentially the industry, especially if companies choose to give employees electric cars – much cheaper to maintain – as extrasalarial benefits.
In addition, cities build more and more charging stations with public money. An ambitious project is now taking place in Suceava, where soon there will be 28 stations installed by the Town Hall, while Bucharest promised to build 30 stations. “In order to build a station, we need to see if there is enough available power in the area, to estimate whether or not the connection is efficient, for what distance and then, depending on power, it is decided what kind of stations will be build”.
Fast stations, which charge a car battery from zero to 80% in just half an hour, cost 10-15 times more than the small ones that load the same battery (depending on the type of car) in one to up to 3-4 hours. “The typical use of a car is within the city where charging times are greatly reduced as the battery is never fully empty. You can charge a battery during shopping, and that is enough for the trips over the the day, then you can continue charging the battery at the end of the day, at home,” explains Vlad.
For the time being, only 364 funding requests have been accepted within the Rabla and Rabla Plus programs for legal entities. Up to 10% of these are for 104 electric and hybrid vehicles, according to data provided by the Environmental Fund Administration (AFM). For the Rabla Plus program, 33 requests were accepted for 104 vehicles, including 87 full electric cars and 17 hybrid electric cars.
“We hope that by the end of the year all 1,000 eco-tickets will be awarded, 300 to individuals and 700 to legal entities, according to our calculations,” Vlad concluded.
More details in the next issue of energynomics.ro Magazine, in September 2017.
