The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) received a proposal from Belarus to extend until December 31, 2023, the zero import customs duty rate for electric vehicles. Vahagn Ghazaryan, Director of the Department of Customs Tariff and Non-Tariff Regulation of the EEC, told Vedomosti about this. According to him, it was transferred to the rest of the states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU; in addition to the Russian Federation, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan) are included to form positions.
The duty was zeroed in May 2020 to create incentives for the formation of a charging infrastructure, as well as taking into account the lack of production of electric vehicles in the EAEU and the jump in national currency rates. It is valid until the end of 2021.
At the end of May, Kommersant wrote that, despite the plans of the Russian government to support the development of the electric vehicle market, none of the Union countries advocated the extension of the zero duty rate, and from 2022, 15% will have to be paid when importing a car with an electric motor to the EAEU space. from its customs value.
The only active project for the development of electric transport in Russia is the Moscow electric bus. By the end of 2021, there will be 600 Kamaz electric buses in the capital, more than 200 have already been supplied by the GAZ group. The situation with light electric vehicles in Russia is more complicated.
According to the analytical agency Avtostat, in five months of 2021, Russians bought only 650 passenger electric vehicles. This is 7 times more than in January – May 2020, and 5.5 times more than in the same period in 2019, Avtostat calculated. It is far from the scale of the European market: according to the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA), 356,469 electric vehicles were sold in 26 EU countries in the first half of the year, an increase of almost 130%.
Now in Russia there is no mass production of electric light vehicles. In 2011, AvtoVAZ developed the Ellada electric car based on Lada Kalina. It could travel up to 140 km on a single charge and cost more than 1 million rubles. In total, about 100 of these machines were produced. There are two more projects of compact electric vehicles – Zetta by entrepreneur Denis Shchurovsky and Kama, developed by KAMAZ jointly with the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU). The first one cannot find financing for the start of production yet; according to the second project, the organization of production and attraction of investments is also being worked out.
The Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade are now developing a concept for the production and use of electric transport in Russia until 2030. The draft concept, which Vedomosti has, envisages the production by 2024 of at least 25,000 electric vehicles and at least 9,400 charging stations. By 2030, it is planned to produce approximately 250,000 electric vehicles a year (10% of the total production in the country), and there should be no less than 72,000 charging stations.
“We believe that the zeroing of import customs duties on cars with an electric motor does not promote investments in the production of vehicles with a low carbon footprint, as well as components for them,” a representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation told Vedomosti.
The Association for the Development of Electric, Unmanned and Connected Transport and Infrastructure supports the proposal of the Belarusian side, its chairman Iya Gordeeva told Vedomosti. “Market development is the first stage in the development of electromobility in any country. For people to try and understand what an electric car is, you first need to extend the zero duty. If the duty is returned now, the market will stop growing, ”she notes.
According to Gordeeva, the extension of the zero duty on electric vehicles is only necessary for no more than 1-2 years, since Russian manufacturers need to develop their production. But the current supply is important for the development of the charging infrastructure, she points out. “No one will invest in chargers if there is no one to use them. If the market growth continues at the current pace, investments in infrastructure will pay off, ”Gordeeva emphasizes.
VTB Capital analyst Vladimir Bespalov agrees that it is necessary to increase the volume of the electric vehicle market in order to pay off investments in the charging infrastructure. In this sense, zeroing the duty at the initial stage will contribute to the development of the market and infrastructure, he sums up.
So far, the pace of development of the charging infrastructure in Russia is outstripping the growth rate of the electric vehicle fleet. According to Gordeeva, the number of chargers for electric vehicles has grown 5 times in two years – to about 1,500 units. While the fleet of electric vehicles from the end of 2020 to May 2021 grew only 1.8 times to almost 11,500 units, it follows from the data of Avtostat. But until the end of 2023, the electric vehicle market in Russia will remain a niche market, says Bespalov. “The key issue is the development of competencies within the country and the beginning of mass production. There will be no radical progress in this area until 2023, ”he said.
.