Intelligent Energy Association: How can we stimulate electromobility?

The whole Europe is struggling to solve the pressing problem of pollution. Toxic emissions from diesel and benzine cars have caused serious air pollution problems in European cities and cause tens of thousands of unnecessary premature deaths every year.

Electric cars are part of the solution, and Romania must reach a clean transport system by 2050, according to the European Ecological Pact, with funds now available to develop a sustainable transport system where electric car charging stations are part of solution, according to the discussions held at the “Urban and Interurban Ecological Transport” event, organized by the Intelligent Energy Association.

“Electromobility is an obvious alternative when it comes to cars. We see an obvious increase from year to year in the number of electric and hybrid cars that are sold, both in Europe and in Romania,” said, during the conference held online, Alina Stoenescu, Advisor Future Mobility East, Business Support and Development, OMV Petrom. “We must be aware that the starting base is quite small, and at the moment, even if the number of electric cars doubles from year to year, we have in the Romanian car park about 10,000 electric cars in a park 7.5 million cars. This is despite the fact that Romania has the largest incentive in Europe, which is granted for the purchase of electric cars, of about 10,000 euros for each electric car purchased, “she added.

Romania can be travelled from any point with an electric car with a range of at least 150 km. And electric car models available on the market in 2021 have a range of between 200 km and 500 km, according to a Greenpeace study. There are 300 locations where an electric car can be charged, and the average is 3 charging points in one place / location. Dedicated stations are usually found in stores, gas stations, the office or at home, in some cases.

“There are several reasons why electromobility is not yet at the level that many people would have expected it to be already. It has many obstacles to overcome. One of them is the purchase price of the cars. The second would be the distance that an electric car can cover between two power supplies. Of course, from year to year, new models appear, which increase this distance and which will help the development of this segment, but apart from distance, it is also necessary to develop the necessary infrastructure, which has been talked about, and which is very important to be spread out on the one hand, but on the other hand, you don’t just need a plug. There is also a need for further recharging of electric cars. This makes me think of an impediment to the growth and adoption of electric cars, namely the length of time you need to charge an electric car, versus those few minutes that people are used to today to power their cars that run on classic fuels. Therefore, the charging infrastructure of electric cars is very important, but it is also very expensive. It is a costly process and it is a difficult process today, unfortunately. And the small number of electric cars that are on the market today cannot necessarily generate a profitable business for companies that want to invest in electrical infrastructure “, Alina Stoenescu underlined.

All these things are made more difficult by the fact that it is imperative to develop the capacity of the electricity network, also explained the OMV Petrom representative.

“These charging stations must be connected to an electrical network. And this whole process is, unfortunately, very difficult. I can give you an example from us (n.r. OMV Petrom): we have 10 electric charging stations, which we have already installed for several months and some that we are waiting to be able to connect to the electricity network”, said Alina Stoenescu.

Romanian authorities promise to do more in the field. In July last year, the Minister of European Investments and Projects, Cristian Ghinea, announced that our country provided in the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience the construction of 13,000 new charging stations for electric cars, but that their number will probably increase to 20,000 in the conditions under which the EU advises for 30,000.

What is the OMV Petrom solution?

“Partnerships are very important. We strongly believe in the power of partnerships, both public and private, because they can be the basis for the development of charging infrastructure for electric cars”, concluded the representative of OMV Petrom.