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Belarusian electric cars market ‘unable to grow without state support’

21.12.2015

The electric cars market in Belarus will not be able to grow without state support or, to be exact, without the relevant government program that would encourage the use of this means of transportation, BelTA learned from Sergei Kamornikov, Deputy Director General of the Belarusian industrial group Belorusneft.

According to the source, Belorusneft has acted as kind of a pioneer by setting up five recharging stations as part of the proprietary refueling stations chain. Now technical and commercial models for using the recharging stations are being worked out. "We've encountered a minor setback: the legislation is not ready for this kind of business. Where should we move on now? The question resembles what came first — the chicken or the egg? Do we wait for the emergence of electric cars that would encourage us to build recharging stations fast or do we build recharging stations first in order to encourage the emergence of electric cars?" said Sergei Kamornikov.

According to the source, there are stations for recharging electric cars every 100km in the direction from Minsk to Europe. Belorusneft also intends to take care of the matter along other major motorways. "As for the number of electric cars in Belarus, I don't think it is a big figure," said the Belorusneft Deputy Director General.

In his words, measures to support manufacturers and users of electric vehicles are in place in some countries. The measures include the exemption from import duties and the vehicle registration fee. Electric vehicles are also granted free parking services. The drivers do not have to pay road toll, they are free to drive in the bus lane and so on. The effectiveness of these measures needs further studying, but the overall trend is obvious: the number of electric vehicles in the world increases every year.

BELARUSIAN NEWS