Development of the electric vehicles market in Russia is still possible only in cities

Sergey Kondratiev, Principal Director on Economic Studies at the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented on the development of a network of filling stations for electric vehicles in Russia to the InfoTEK online magazine.

Sergey Kondratiev considers the requirement for the mandatory installation of electric modules at gas stations to be excessively stringent, because even on the main federal highways, electric vehicles are still extremely rare.

As of mid-2023, according to the Avtostat agency, only 25.8 thousand electric vehicles were registered in Russia, that is, less than 0.06% of the entire fleet of passenger vehicles in the country.

“Now electric vehicles are used mainly for intra-city and suburban trips, and the development of charging infrastructure in large cities could become a top priority,” Kondratiev told InfoTEK.

The expert recalled that many vertically integrated oil companies have already joined this race - Rosneft and Lukoil are installing electric modules at their gas stations in the Moscow region, Leningrad region, Omsk and other regions, but - taking into account the actual fleet of electric vehicles.

“I think that the government could create an incentive for gas station owners to install electric modules if, following the example of many European countries, they made public data on the fleet of cars and electric vehicles not at the level of individual regions, but at the level of municipalities and large settlements. This would allow companies understand the potential demand for this service and not invest in infrastructure that will never be demanded,” he concluded.