It was meant to go so well

For the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, the Covid-19 pandemic may prove to offer a way out in explaining many unfulfilled or delayed economic and social plans. One of them was Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s boisterous announcement of a great electromobility project and “a million electric cars by 2025.”

by Bartosz Grzybiński

The Act on Electromobility and Alternative Fuels came into force at the end of February 2018. According to the Ministry of Energy, which prepared the draft, the main objec tive of the act was to popularize electric vehicles and transport using alternative fuels in Poland. During press conferences organized at the time and in many official government studies, e.g. Energy Policy of Poland until 2040, Morawiecki announced that Poland would soon become a “powerhouse of electromobility,” and by 2025 there would be 1 million electric cars on Polish roads. For this purpose, special laws were to be prepared in a short time to subsidize the purchase of such cars or the deduction of VAT. According to regulations from 2019, co-financing from the Low-Emissions Transport Fund was to amount to 30 percent of the car price, but no more than PLN 37,500, with a maximum vehicle price of PLN 125,000.

Today it is clear that these plans were just more propaganda fireworks of the Polish prime minister and government. This is confirmed by the current position of the Ministry of State Assets. In the document Sustain able Transport Strategy until 2030, the ministry reduces the estimates from the PM’s announcement. Now it is no longer about a million cars by 2025, but about 600,000 by 2030. Interestingly, this figure includes not only fully electric cars but also plug-in hybrids, i.e. vehicles with an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, with the possibility of recharging the electric battery from a socket.

Shortly before the presidential election, the long-promised subsidies finally started, but in a very limited form. Applications for subsidies for the purchase of electric cars from three programs: for private cars, for delivery vans and for companies with passenger transport licens es, can be submitted on the website of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW). Before submitting them, the beneficiaries must register on the fund’s website, and the deadline is July 31, or sooner if the funds are exhausted (about PLN 150 million). The NFOŚiGW will pay the largest amount of subsidies for the purchase of electric vans (up to PLN 70,000) and taxis (up to PLN 25,000). The subsidy for electric cars for private use will not exceed PLN 18,750. That is half of the amount originally assumed: not 30 per cent, but 15 percent of the car price.

As consolation for those interested in purchasing an electric car, it will still be possible to deduct the excise duty, but this will be applicable only until the end of this year.

What about other announcements related to transport in Poland? Things are looking well and, as always, the government is optimistic. The cabinet’s plans include the construction of 100 new ring roads, 80 bridges, a pas senger ferry from the shipyard in Szczecin, a cross-cut of the Vistula Spit, and the flagship project: the Central Transport Hub (CPK), which is to combine an airport with a railway and road junction and is located about 40 km west of Warsaw. The government plenipotentiary for CPK construction is convinced that the first planes will already appear there in 2027. Considering the experience so far, for example in introducing electromobility in Po land, there is a lot to be doubtful about.