Car transition: the number of electric cars in Russia has exceeded 60 thousand.

The number of electric cars in Russia has increased by a third and reached 60,000, according to the Ministry of Economic Development. The ministry reported: the number of electric cars passing on toll roads within the framework of the experiment launched in 2023 increased by 150%, reaching 1.1 million. A total of 10.6 thousand participants - owners of electric cars - are registered in the program. But this year such a benefit will work only for Russian-made cars. How it will affect the traffic and what hinders the development of demand for electric transportation - in the material "Izvestia".

How many electric cars in Russia

The number of electric cars registered in the country at the end of the year exceeded 60 thousand units, reported "Izvestia" in the Ministry of Economic Development. At the beginning of 2024, this number was about 41 thousand.

- This indicates the growing interest of Russian motorists in modern technologies," said Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Russia Mikhail Kaminsky.

The ministry also summarized the results of the experiment, in the framework of which electric cars received the right to free travel on toll roads. Thus, from March 1, 2023 to December 31, 2024 more than 10.6 thousand people joined the action. In total, more than 1.1 million free passes were made on toll highways during this period.

At the same time from March 1 to December 31, 2023 more than 4.8 thousand people used the measure. In total, more than 315 thousand passes were made free of charge. Thus, their number has increased by about 150% over the last year.

- Free travel on toll federal highways has become really popular among electric car owners in two years," said Mikhail Kaminsky. - In addition, the government is introducing incentive measures: subsidies for purchase, transportation tax and parking privileges. There is an active expansion of the network of electric charging stations.

Earlier this January, the Cabinet of Ministers extended the term of the experiment until the end of the year. But to stimulate demand for domestic electric cars, the benefit will now apply only to owners of Russian-made cars. This applies to the products of the Lipetsk plant Motorinvest, which produces electric cars under the Evolute brand, the Moscow Automobile Plant Moskvich, electric trucks from the company EM-Rus, models Gazelle e-NN, Gazelle e-City from GAZ, Lada e-Largus, Lada Ellada, Amberavto A5 from the Kaliningrad enterprise Avtotor.

The list for free travel within the framework of the experiment includes the highways M-1 "Belarus" (including the "Odintsovo Bypass"), M-3 "Ukraine", M-4 "Don", M-11 "Neva", M-12 "Vostok", and the Central Ring Road (CRR).

According to the Concept for the development of production and use of electric motor transport (developed by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, adopted in 2021), by 2030 in Russia it is planned to produce electric cars in the amount of at least 10% of the total production of vehicles and to put into operation more than 25 thousand fast charging stations.

The Ministry of Economic Development told Izvestia that from 2022 to 2024, more than 13 thousand electric cars were produced under the concept and more than 2.2 thousand fast charging stations were put into operation.

How will the limitation of privileges affect traffic

More than 17.8 thousand new electric cars were sold in Russia last year, according to data from the agency "Avtostat". This figure is 26.4% higher than the level of 2023, when more than 14 thousand electric cars were sold.

Despite the fact that last year's sales figure was a record, the growth rate of the Russian market of electric cars is decreasing, notes "Avtostat". Their share in the total sales of new passenger cars decreased from 1.3% in 2023 to 1.1% in 2024. According to the agency, the market leader of new electric cars in Russia for the second year in a row is the Chinese Zeekr. In 2024, more than 7.6 electric cars of this brand were sold, which is 43% of the total number of such sales. Moreover, the number of sold cars doubled compared to the year before last.

The second and third places were taken by Russian Moskvich (1,796 units) and Evolute (1,226 units): the share of their sales amounted to 10% and 7% respectively. Moskvich's sales of electric cars increased 3.1 times, while Evolute's sales fell by 39%.

Zeekr became the leader of electric car sales in Russia and according to the data of the car sales aggregator "Avito Auto".

"Sales of Zeekr X grew most noticeably - 2.4 times, followed by Zeekr 009 and Zeekr 001 with growth rates of 95.9% and 58.2% respectively," the company told Izvestia.

Expert of the direction "Popular Front. Analytics" Pyotr Shkumatov noted that with the restriction of toll road privileges to Russian cars only, the data of this year's government experiment will be much more modest.

- We know that our leader is Chinese electric cars, and it is not quite clear how many Moskviches and Evolutes are in the overall picture, but it seems that there are not very many. But we're not saying that the toll roads were driven just for the free ride. So the traffic of electric cars on them will remain at the same level," he believes.

Petr Shkumatov also noted that at the end of last year there was a surge in sales of electric cars due to the increase in the rates of the scrappage fee. As a result, for new electric cars it is now more than Br600 thousand, while for used cars - more than Br1 million.

- I think sales of electric cars in 2025 will be much lower than in 2024, as there will be a drop in imported cars. Now it looks like any electric car is at least one and a half times more expensive than a comparable gasoline car. And if cars are already expensive, what is the point of overpaying," he reasoned.

The expert also recalled that in recent years, electric cars have been actively used by cab services, but recently they have begun to abandon their use due to unprofitability.

Vladislav Mazov, director of the Artis network of charging stations for electric cars, reminded Izvestia that the production of the domestic electric car Atom and one of the two battery plants of Rosatom are scheduled to be launched in 2025.

- At the same time, demand for such transportation is declining, with 21% fewer of them sold in October 2024 compared to the same period last year," he said. - But in general, the Russian market of electric vehicles is quite young and is still being formed, so it is characterized by periodic fluctuations.

He called the situation with sales of electric cars against the background of the global trend "rather modest", but reminded about the research of the analytical company Strategy Partners. Its authors predicted that by 2030 the sales of electric vehicles in Russia will increase fivefold.

- This is due to two main factors. Firstly, the launch of special government programs aimed at supporting manufacturers and buyers of electric vehicles, and secondly, the legislative restriction on the sale of vehicles with internal combustion engine (ICE) starting from 2035," the expert said.

Now, according to him, only 11% of Russians are seriously thinking about buying an electric car. This is evidenced by the results of a study by Artis and the service "Anketolog". According to it, almost a third of respondents prefer to stay with a gasoline engine, and 40% of respondents are ready to consider buying an electric car if its cost is close to a car with an internal combustion engine.

Vladislav Mazov agreed that the increase in the utilization fee will cause a downturn in the market, provoke a rise in prices, and sales of new electric cars may decrease by 5-10%.

- It will mostly hit those who prefer budget electric cars like Nissan Leaf - for them the percentage increase in cost is too high," he said. - Aftermarket models will become an affordable alternative - their price will increase by 10-15% commensurate with demand.

According to him, the innovation will have almost no effect on the audience of the premium segment: the cost of Li Xiang or Zeekr starts from 6 million rubles and a price increase of up to 10% will not have a significant impact on the interest of buyers.

At the same time, one of the factors restraining the electric car market, experts interviewed by Izvestia named the lack of charging stations. In general, there are about 7 thousand charging points for all 60 thousand cars registered in the country. For comparison, in Europe there are more than 20 thousand stations for a similar number of cars. Infrastructure development is hampered by the high final cost of equipment for charging stations and its installation, so the government is getting involved, providing subsidies to operators, concluded Vladislav Mazov.