At the highest charge: Russians began to buy personal stations for electric vehicles
Russians have started to actively buy personal chargers for electric vehicles. With the emergence of an unstable fuel situation, the demand for personal stations has doubled, and for the services of stationary public installations — by 15-20%, the Association of Manufacturers and Operators of Electric Charging Stations said. Interest is fueled by hybrid drivers. Data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade confirm this: sales of hybrids and electric vehicles increased by 95% in January – July. Experts explain the trend by the desire of car owners to reduce costs and not depend on the availability of fuel at the gas station.
How has the demand for electric car charging increased
Since the beginning of the year, the demand for personal charging stations for electric vehicles has grown by 20% year-on-year, which corresponds to the usual market dynamics. At the same time, after the start of disruptions in fuel supplies, that is, since June, sales of stations from Russian manufacturers have already doubled, the Association of Manufacturers and Operators of Electric Charging Stations (APOE) told Izvestia.
The most popular are inexpensive slow stations with a capacity of 7 kW, which allow you to charge your car overnight. These are mainly Chinese devices, both from reliable manufacturers and from companies with dubious reputations in terms of electrical safety, which are sold through marketplaces, said Armen Safaryan, Chairman of the association.
Personal charging is purchased by owners of electric vehicles and hybrids equipped with an internal combustion engine and an electric motor with a battery. Evolute, Geely and GAC cars have become an additional driver of demand: their sales are growing, but the cars are supplied to customers without standard chargers, so the owners purchase them themselves.
At the same time, according to an APOE survey conducted at the end of 2025, 59% of electric car owners and 47% of plug-in hybrid owners charged cars at home or in an underground parking lot. To do this, they used their own charging station or a standard cable connected to a 220 V household outlet.
According to Punkt E, the largest network of charging stations for electric vehicles in Russia, Moscow accounts for 32% of the demand for home chargers, 21% in the Moscow region, and 11% in St. Petersburg. This structure is natural: these regions are the leaders in the number of electric vehicles, the company explained.
The demand for public charging stations has increased by 15-20% since the beginning of June and remains at this level, Armen Safaryan said. The main increase was provided by owners of hybrids: they began to charge cars more often and travel mainly by electric power, without using gasoline. At the same time, an increase in demand for charging services does not lead to a significant increase in the load on the power grid. Hybrids usually do not charge for long and consume 20-40 kWh, whereas a full-fledged electric car requires about 80 kWh, the head of the association specified.
According to APOE's rough estimate, at the beginning of 2026, there were about 7 thousand public electric charging stations in Russia, of which about 4 thousand were fast. About 400 more stations were added in the first half of the year. The average load of "street" gas stations in the country is about 4% of their maximum capacity and remains heterogeneous. In Moscow, where the fleet of electric vehicles is better equipped with charging infrastructure, this figure is higher — about 7-9%.
Why is demand growing and what to expect next
Sales of new electric vehicles and hybrids in Russia in January – July 2026 increased by 94.7% year-on-year, to 70.2 thousand cars, the Ministry of Industry and Trade reported earlier. Izvestia sent a request to the agency about the dynamics of demand for electric charging stations.
In three weeks, from June 29 to July 19, sales of electric vehicles and hybrids increased by 83% relative to the average weekly figures for the first half of the year, said Sergey Tselikov, director of the Autostat agency.
At the same time, since about the beginning of June, there have been interruptions in the supply of fuel to gas stations in the country. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak linked them to the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacks on Russian oil refineries. At the end of July, Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev stated that the situation with gasoline had improved in a number of regions, in particular in the Trans-Baikal Territory, Kaliningrad, Irkutsk, Arkhangelsk and Saratov regions, Kuban and Tatarstan. However, supply problems persist in some regions.
Igor Yushkov, a leading analyst at the National Energy Security Fund, attributed the current surge in demand for electric vehicle charging to a shortage of traditional fuel. Previously, hybrid owners were more likely to choose gasoline, but now it is often more profitable for them to use a fast public electric charging station.
According to Alexander Frolov, Deputy Director General of the Institute of National Energy and an expert at the Infotech analytical center, a hybrid car remains the most reliable option in conditions of fuel shortages. At the same time, auto expert Maxim Kadakov notes that it is difficult to assess the economic benefits of switching to electric transport: it depends on a number of factors. In terms of refueling, electric vehicles outperform gasoline and diesel cars — charging at home or at a public station is cheaper than fuel. However, electric cars and hybrids themselves are initially about 40% more expensive than cars with internal combustion engines, even taking into account a number of government subsidies.
Igor Yushkov believes that after the full recovery of the gasoline and diesel market, the growth rate of demand for electric vehicles and charging infrastructure will return to previous levels.
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