How infrastructure for electric vehicles developing in Tatarstan
Electric vehicles in Tatarstan are becoming more and more in demand: the number of units registered in the republic has increased from 40-45 in 2022 to 500-1000 this year. But the development of the market is impossible without the creation of the necessary infrastructure, first of all, the placement of a sufficient number of charging stations. Roman Tyukalov, the director of Greengy electric charging stations network, and Stanislav Spiridonov, the deputy director for development of the company, told on the air of Realnoe Vremya Live about how comfortable conditions are being created in the republic today for owners of electric vehicles.
Number of electric vehicles in Tatarstan is growing
According to experts, the market of electric vehicles and hybrids has been actively developing over the past three years. According to Tyukalov, in 2020 there were 3.2 million electric vehicles and hybrids in the world, and in the summer of 2023 — there were registered already more than 15 million units. In Russia in 2020, the number of electric cars was close to 60 thousand. Three years later, this figure exceeded 24 thousand cars. In Tatarstan, statistics vary depending on the source, the director of Greengy said. In 2020, there were only 40-45 electric vehicles in the republic. This year, according to various sources, their number has increased to 500-1000 units.
Tyukalov explained that a whole set of factors influenced the growth of popularity of electric vehicles. First of all, this is the appearance of a huge number of new models. Chinese brands have shown particular activity — they are the easiest to buy in the current situation. Besides, the rise in price of classic cars mattered. According to Tyukalov, it is now more reasonable to purchase an electric car for the same amount, which provides for a larger number of options.
The director of Greengy named Volkswagen ID.4 and Volkswagen ID.6 among the most popular electric car models in Kazan. Also, citizens choose brands such as Zeekr, Voyah, and Hongqi. Evolute is more often purchased for taxis.
Development of infrastructure for electric motorists
Infrastructure is needed for the development of the electric vehicle market. As Tyukalov noted, the market of charging stations for electric transport in Tatarstan is at the stage of active development. So, in September of this year, only 170 chargering stations operated on the territory of the republic. In November, another 12-13 points were launched, mainly long-distance travel. According to the director of Greengy, Kazan is better equipped than many other major cities, but this is not enough. Now we need to develop infrastructure inside the city, on suburban and intercity highways.
“I assume there are about 190-200 stations now (in Tatarstan — ed.). Plus, the development of infrastructure does not stop there," Tyukalov assured.
What prevents an increase in the number of charging stations for electric vehicles
According to experts, the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Tatarstan, which states that developers should install charging service infrastructure for electric vehicles, will have a positive impact on the popularity of electric vehicles in Tatarstan. Tyukalov and Spiridonov also praised the recommendation to provide parking spaces for electric vehicles equipped with appropriate infrastructure — they should be at least 5% of the total number of places.
Thanks to these measures, there should be no problems with the placement of charging stations on the territory of new buildings. The situation is much more complicated with apartment buildings erected earlier, experts complained. To place a charging station in this case, it is necessary to obtain the consent of the majority of homeowners.
“Even if we pass this stage, we somehow collected a thousand apartments, the consent of 51% of the owners, everything was decided with it, we come to the second question. And the second question is that there is no spare capacity. Buying more is quite a lot of money," Spiridonov explained.
He said that the company, together with its partners, has developed a legislative initiative to simplify the procedure for placing charging stations on the territory of apartment buildings. It was presented at Kazan Digital Week. The initiative has already been supported by Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Tatarstan Marat Minibayev. Now it is being considered at the federal level.
Electric cars are mainly urban transport
As the head of the Volga Region group of Auto.ru, Rustam Gataullin, told in an interview with Realnoe Vremya, Kazan residents are ready to purchase electric cars. Now it remains for the development of infrastructure in the city. Properly placed charging stations in each location of Kazan can become one of the first steps that push consumers to buy electric cars.
At the same time, according to Gataullin, for the first time electric vehicles will be mainly urban transport. When asked about the expediency of purchasing such a vehicle to move within Kazan, he replied that it depends on the resources that the consumer has:
“There is a target audience, there are people with different abilities. Someone may buy an electric car as a second car in the family. Why not? If there is a full-fledged gasoline or diesel car on which you can go out of town to the country and drive 100-150 km safely, then the second one is for the spouse, who, for example, rides 10 km to work and 10 km back and plus goes to the supermarket to shop on weekends so as not to carry all these packages in her hands. It is also a solution.