Cristian Prichea, Ford Romania: “The charging infrastructure is the most important barrier in terms of access to green mobility”

“Electric mobility is very important. Starting from Ford’s extremely ambitious global electrification strategy, our target is as clear as possible: reducing CO2 emissions. Globally, we are committed to electrifying our models, to offer customers the opportunity to choose performance standards in electrification,” Cristian Prichea, Managing Director Ford Romania NSC, said during e-Mobility Forum 2021 organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“By 2026, our model range in Europe will be capable of zero emissions, fully electric or plug-in, moving to full electric by 2030. We invest heavily in our range of electrified vehicles.

The Puma model enjoys a fantastic success in Romania and in Europe. It is the best-selling Ford model in Europe, with over 106,000 units sold in the first 8 months.

Regarding the challenges we face as a car manufacturer from the perspective of green mobility, there are three points I would like to mention. The most important challenge is the infrastructure that is insufficiently developed in relation to the customer’s appetite to buy electrified cars.

EV sales in Europa has increased by 110 percent in the last 3 years. The number of charging points increased by only 58 percent. The charging infrastructure is the most important barrier in terms of access to green mobility. Romania is in the top 5 with the least developed charging infrastructure for electric cars in Europe.

Electrified motors have increased substantially. In the first 9 months, about 30 percent of new car sales were electrified, doubling this share from previous years. Our investments at European and global level are massive.

The second challenge is to stop imports of polluting and extremely old cars from Western Europe. In 2020, 625,000 SH cars from other markets were registered. At the moment, for each new registered car, four other SH cars are brought from other markets. Solutions must be found for the authorities to stop this phenomenon.

A third challenge is the incentives to purchase electrified cars. This transition to 100% electric cars should take a considerable amount of time.”

Full recording of the event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY8U4Ak0f2U&t=5616s