HEAD-SPINNING ELECTRIC CARS
According to the SAMAR Automotive Market Research Institute, at the end of last year there were 10,232 vehicles with alternative drive registered in Poland. Approximately half of them were electric cars, the other half were plug-in hybrids (with the possibility of charging from sockets) and models powered by gas (CNG) or hydrogen. by Bartosz Grzybiński
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ales of electric vehicles are growing all over the world, and Poland is no exception. Although they accounted for only a fraction (0.7 percent) of the total number of cars sold on the Polish automotive market last year, they are still noteworthy because, unlike in most other European countries, buyers cannot expect any real state support. In a situation where these cars are still much more expensive than models powered by internal combustion engines, and given that the government is working another year in a row to prepare or improve laws and fiscal proposals to encourage their purchase and use, even these few thousand “electrics” seems to be a large number. Interestingly, despite a decline in car sales in Poland between January and May 2020 (-38.26 percent compared to the same period of last year), the percentage share of sales of electric cars has increased as the only one among all the automotive segments. From January to May 2020,
THERE IS EVERY INDICATION THAT THE DYNAMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE ELECTRIC CAR MARKET IS A CONSTANT AND MOST LIKELY IRREVERSIBLE TREND IN THE HISTORY OF MOTORIZATION. 42
Autumn 2020
917 electric cars were sold in Poland (compared to 860 in January-May 2019), which might not seem like a lot, but compared to the whole automotive market, which is seeing unprecedented several dozen-percent drops in sales not only in Poland but also worldwide, this is the only segment that has a global upward trend. What makes electric cars sell in Poland despite a higher purchase price, the practical lack of legal and fiscal support, and poor infrastructure, including few charging stations? Maybe it is a question of fashion, maybe society’s growing environmental awareness, maybe part of the image policy of companies and institutions which constitute almost 70 percent of buyers on the Polish market? Probably a little of everything. The effect is that there are more and more electric models on Polish roads and streets. Significantly, today they are offered in practically all the automotive segments, starting from the ultra-urban, two-seater electric ForTwo Smart, through urban cars such as the Renault ZOE, Skoda CITIGO-e and Volkswagen iD3, the compact class represented by the Nissan Leaf and Volkswagen e-Golf, crossovers such as the electric Hyundai Kona and KIA e-Niro, SUVs like the Jaguar I-Pace and Audi e-Tron, to sports cars (!) like the Porsche Taycan. That’s not all. More and more companies offer fully electric trucks and vans such as the Renault Master ZE, Volkswagen e-Crafter and Nissan e-NV200. There is every indication that the dynamic development of the electric car market is a constant and most likely irreversible trend in the history of motorization. And it’s a trend that we are lucky to be witnessing. Below, in no particular order, are just a few examples from the increasingly wide range of electric cars available on the Polish automotive market. The Warsaw Voice
