Today, September 9, 2022, we celebrate World Electromobility Day. Today is a global recognition of the importance of electric mobility. The owners, but also those who are going to acquire an electric vehicle in the future, together with the local transport authorities, promote and inform the crucial role they play in promoting the transition to sustainable road transport and a zero-emission future.
On the part of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works, the Government and in general at a global level, a huge effort is being made to promote and invest in the transition of means of transport to electric to achieve a goal of zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. In Cyprus, about 50% of these emissions come from transport.
In this direction, the General Policy Framework for the Promotion of the Use of Electric Vehicles was promoted and approved in 2021, which aims to:
- increase to 25% of new vehicle registrations by 2030
- increase this percentage to 100% by 2035.
In order to implement this result, the general framework had set a target for 2022 for 1036 new vehicle registrations to be electric. As of August 2022, 1343 vehicles have been registered or ordered, achieving the year's target by 144%.
Specifically, in the category of the pure electric car, as well as small commercial, approvals were given and orders were confirmed in a number of applications in addition to the available sponsorships (which were 426) using savings derived from other categories of the plan.
At the same time, for the moped/motorcycle category, approvals were given for all available sponsorships but 142 orders were confirmed, which received or will receive a grant. In addition, approvals and confirmed orders have been given for 175 new electric bicycles.
The greatest demand appeared to exist for new all-electric vehicles, mopeds/motorcycles and small commercial vehicles. It has emerged that for small or large buses there is still no developed market to the extent that it offers prices that make them attractive.
Regarding the Plan that was announced at the same time and concerned a plan for the withdrawal of an old vehicle with a combination of purchase of a pure electric or partially electric (plugin-hybrid) vehicle, all available approvals (433) have been given and 359 have been confirmed so far, while it is expected that the confirmations may exceed the maximum number of available sponsorships, so they will be covered by savings from other categories.
For the above, the total sponsorship amount amounts to 7,611,000 euros.
We have already far exceeded our goal for 2022, which was to achieve a national target for registrations of pure electric cars, with a percentage of 144%, due to the Plans that have been announced as well as the overall effort made in relation to other measures promoted in the context of the general policy for the promotion of electric vehicles.
In addition, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works is preparing new plans that will be announced in its effort to continue supporting the promotion of electromobility. These new plans will take into account the results and interest shown in each vehicle category, as well as comments and suggestions received from citizens and institutions in the context of the implementation of the first project, including the extension of the possibility to apply for sponsorship to electric bicycles of various specifications.
In order to support electromobility, the Ministry is promoting at the same time all the measures provided for in the general policy plan such as the development of recharging infrastructure, the replacement of government vehicles with electric ones, the promotion of legislation to simplify procedures to facilitate the effort of the private sector to create recharging points. In relation to recharging points, the Ministry is preparing and will soon announce a grant plan for the installation of 1000 publicly accessible recharging stations.
Source: PIO