Charging stations are growing like mushrooms – Newspaper Kommersant No. 69 (7514) of 04/20/2023

In Russia, a year after the start of state support for electric vehicles, the number of electric charging stations has doubled, and car owners have become more interested in such cars. Most of the new stations were in Moscow, but among the leaders, according to 2GIS, are also St. Petersburg, cities of Siberia and the Far East. Avtostat and 2chargers call Moscow and the Moscow region, Krasnodar Territory, Tatarstan and St. Petersburg leaders. Sales of electric vehicles are also on the rise, and for the first time, sales of new cars are outstripping demand for used vehicles, driven by supply from China.

The number of charging stations for electric vehicles in the Russian Federation has doubled over the past year, and interest in such vehicles and used hybrids has grown by 117%. Such data are provided in the study of 2GIS and the Avtoteka car history check service (Avito project).

According to them, as of April 18, 2023, there are 1.7 thousand public charging stations in the Russian Federation (one or more charging points can be at one station).

Moscow is the leader in terms of the number of stations (300 units), and their number has grown one and a half times over the year. They are followed by Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (112 stations, an increase of 433%), Krasnoyarsk (96 stations, an increase of 269%), St. Petersburg (92 stations, an increase of 61%), and Kazan (57 stations, an increase of 235%). At the same time, only in Moscow, according to 2GIS Pro data, EZS are located relatively evenly throughout the city and satisfy the current demand – there was only one location in the city where users often look for stations, but there are few public EZS nearby.

According to Avtostat and 2chargers, there are 3.3 thousand public charging stations in the Russian Federation, of which 1.3 thousand are fast. The leaders in the number of EZS, according to their estimates, are Moscow and the Moscow region, the Krasnodar Territory, Tatarstan and St. Petersburg. 2GIS notes that a number of stations marked by others as functioning do not work, despite the availability mark. They say that the difference between their data and the data of other aggregators arises from the fact that the latter do not count stations, but the number of individual charge points.

Sergey Udalov from Avtostat notes that the availability of charging stations is a dynamic story, and the list of leaders in terms of the number of stations as a whole reflects the distribution of the fleet of electric vehicles and hybrids in the Russian Federation.

Thus, 19.4% of the park falls on the Far East, Siberia – 17.9%, Moscow – 17%.

The government has been subsidizing the installation of charging stations and the purchase of domestic electric vehicles since 2022. First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov reported that in 2022, 439 “fast” charging stations were created in the Russian Federation in 12 pilot regions, and by 2024 their number under the state program will be about 3 thousand. The fleet of electric vehicles has also been actively growing in recent years. At the beginning of 2023, it consisted of 21.4 thousand cars, follows from the data of Avtostat. At the same time, in March alone, 702 new electric vehicles were purchased in the Russian Federation, which became a record sales volume. The same volume was sold for the whole of 2020, although at that time there was still a zero duty on the import of electric vehicles. The share of electric vehicles in sales is now 1%, and a year earlier – 0.3%. Most often in March, they purchased Evolute electric vehicles (160 vehicles) from Lipetsk Motorinvest. At the same time, despite the lack of state support for the purchase of non-localized cars, Volkswagen (150 units) and Tesla (103 units) are in second and third place.

In the market for used electric vehicles and hybrids, buyers are most often interested in the Toyota Prius, Lexus RX, Honda Civic and Nissan Leaf, according to Avtoteka data. St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk and Moscow are leaders in the number of requested reports.

Sergey Udalov notes that the demand for electric vehicles in the Russian Federation has not yet been closed, and sales of such vehicles will continue to grow if there are benefits for owners. At the same time, sales of new electric vehicles are now growing faster than used ones, although the latter are still twice as large in absolute terms. Deliveries of electric vehicles now come mainly from China, the analyst says, including under the Volkswagen brand, which increases the diversity of the offer.

Olga Nikitina