Despite the spectacular advancement of electric cars, Petrom’s director of refining and marketing says that in Romania, only a quarter of the current fleet of personal cars with heat engines will be replaced with electric cars in the next ten years, for two reasons: the still limited network of charging stations and consumer behavior.

“In Romania, today, 97% of cars run on diesel and gasoline. We expect a reduction in their share by up to 25% in the next 10 years, as the number of electric and hybrid cars will increase. Which is probably a slower pace than we would expect, given the emphasis on electromobility,” said Radu Căprău at a specialized conference recently organized by S&P Platt’s, according to e-nergia.ro.

He explained why electric vehicles will not multiply very quickly, although their number has doubled from year to year.

“To better understand the reason for the slow growth, we need to consider several elements, such as the development of the electric car recharging network and customer behavior.

Speaking of customer behavior, it is worth mentioning that while customers are eager to experience driving electric cars, they are not necessarily eager to change their behavior, whether it refers to refueling or recharging the car. The refueling of the vehicle must be fast, it must be easy and without other problems. Recharging an electric car is certainly not as fast as a classic car.

In addition, the fear of the distance between the charging stations is still a very important impediment in adopting an electric car. Without a widely available charging network, customers will continue to be reluctant to switch to electric cars,” he said.