Will the fast expansion of electromobility and other alternative drives continue in the Czech Republic this year? What new models of electric vehicles and new sales offers can we look forward to? What new surprises will be brought to us by public transport? What supportive measures are being prepared by state administration? A number of answers to these and similar questions were brought by this year’s 5th traditional conference on clean mobility in the Czech Republic in Loučeň. The conference program is available HERE, and the complete set of presentations is available for download at https://www.mzp.cz/cz/cista_mobilita_seminar. The conference participants could also make use of two charging stations for the entire duration of the conference.
“The purpose of this gathering is to introduce the activities of the individual departments in the area of clean mobility´s support and to summarize the performance of objectives arising from the National Action Plan for Clean Mobility. Road traffic, especially in cities, remains the main source of emissions of harmful substances into the air. At present, the rapid rise of alternative fuels is beyond doubt and our job is to create the conditions necessary for its further development,” said Vladislav Smrž, Deputy Minister for the Section of Environmental Policy and International Relations of the Czech Republic, on behalf of the organizers.
Electromobility in the Czech Republic: on the verge of the third millennium
The current numbers of domestic electric vehicles, including the 400 vehicles newly registered last year, are approaching the threshold of two thousand vehicles. Just from the beginning of 2012, over 1,600 electric vehicles started to appear on Czech roads, with the largest number registered last year and in 2015. Assuming the average annual mileage of one vehicle is approximately 15 thousand km, the average amount of electricity for this number of electric cars is around 3 million kWh, which is the equivalent of a year’s consumption of over 1,200 households.
As is the case in other developed European countries, electric cars are becoming a common part of traffic in the Czech Republic, especially in the cities. This is reflected in all areas associated with sales and service of electric cars. Projections of market development expect annual sales in the Czech Republic to reach several thousand electric vehicles within the course of several years. This represents approximately 3% of the market, which is just a short step behind the countries of Western Europe where this percentage is expected to reach between 5 and 10%.
The main partner of the conference was the ČEZ Group – the operator of the largest network of public charging stations for electric cars in the Czech Republic. This network is expected to expand by about fifty new locations. This is also thanks to the fast charging stations, which allow charging of most of the battery capacity within 20 to 30 minutes, and which were built as part of the grant from the European Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) program. The European Commission thus supports the interconnection of Europe by constructing charging stations along the main TEN-T road network. For more, please visit http://www.elektromobilita.cz/cs/mapa-dobijecich-stanic.html.