Electric Vehicle Development Plans in Russia

While the passions around electric vehicles do not subside, and in the ranks of those commenting hard lobbied the issue of electrification of cars, I proposetalk about plans for electrifying cars in Russia. Although it seems to many that for the articles against electric vehicles I was paid oil tycoons (if, but not), I am not an absolute opponent of electric vehicles. Yes, in my opinion, now is not the time for them, as steam engines went into oblivion, in the distant future, as it seems to me, they can conquer car market. Although, I admit, I personally am more interested in hybrids and analogues on hydrogen. But you love electric cars. Let's talk about them as part of our vast.

Will they become electric cars?

As statistics show, there are two camps,discussing electric cars. The first camp is called "Everything is bad." Proponents of this camp say we are all on a hydrocarbon needle, and only the next generation will green on the road.

The second camp "Romance". Here, few people are interested in what happened before, what problems are there now - the main thing is that in the distant future a new source of energy will appear (when exactly, it is unknown, but it doesn’t matter) that will solve all the problems.

I'm not mocking you, well, maybe a little bit. The fact is that in all these arguments, something is wrong. Some do not want to fight or consider it ineffective, while others are not particularly worried, as everything will be decided sometime later. But if all of you like environmental friendliness and profitability, what needs to be done right now? No one suggests investing in batteries, in infrastructure - it seems to everyone that it seems that the issue will be solved by itself, or some rich comrade, like Dyson, will solve the world problem.

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But there’s always someone who will say that I’ve been paid for it. Well, and if you turn to someone from the outside? For instance:

Volvo predicts no demand for ICE

This is the head of Volvo Hokan Samuelsson

Volvo CEO Hokan Samuelsson believes electric cars will become more popular after the epidemic coronavirus. According to Samuelsson:

Electrification will go faster. It would be wise for governments interested in electrification to bet on electric cars today.

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Everything is cool except for the word "interested." I do not know if our government is interested in leading the fall in oil prices and other collapses, but there is a chance. The only thing I did not understand, in connection with which Samuelsson decided that interest in electric cars will increase everywhere. He refers to statistics from China, where interest in electric vehicles increased by 20%, and statistics from Europe, where interest also rose to 30%.

An important refinement, I think, will be the fact thatnot indicated 20 and 30 percent of what? If it’s from the population of the planet, then it’s direct en masse, and electric cars won. And if from the previous values, then, for example, in Russia there are about 6000 electric vehicles. Plus 30% of this value = 1800 cars. For the Russian market - a drop in the ocean, and for manufacturers potential 1800 cars with a minimum cost of 3-4 million rubles.

After all, it may be that Samuelsson threw in information in order to “stimulate” demand, but we will not go down to conspiracy theories.

Car from Volvo Recharge

In addition, Volvo introduced the brand to the Russian market. Recharge. Its essence is toelectrify cars. This brand will concentrate on pure electric vehicles, “soft hybrids” or hybrids with recharging from an external source (plug-in hybrid).

The key difference between a traditional hybrid anda soft hybrid is that the electric motor of the first can independently drive the car, and the electric motor of the latter can only help the internal combustion engine, because it is not strong enough to accelerate and maintain the movement of the vehicle.

As a “lure” Volvo promises to payall have a year of electricity to charge hybrid models, but the promotion is valid only until September 30, 2020. If you have long wanted to buy something like that, then you can pay attention.

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AvtoVAZ about drones and electric cars

Vesta EV for 3 million rubles

As the director of the Lada B / C program Andrei Likhachev says:

Currently, there are no effective, in terms ofbusiness, platforms and sufficient consumer demand for electric cars. The development of technology is hampered by the difference in climatic zones, the imperfection of legislation and the lack of developed infrastructure.

In addition to oil, there are a bunch of problems that need to be addressed:

• Unprofitable. No one will suffer huge losses for the production of a couple of thousand cars.
• Climate. We are cold, and the batteries do not like this, which affects the overall efficiency.
• Legislation. It really is not there for electric vehicles.
• Low demand. Electric cars do not want for 3-4 million - it's expensive and not at all lux for your money.
• Lack of infrastructure. Even if you are a major who spends 3-4 million a month, then how will you charge an electric car? There are no electric refueling stations in that amount so that you can move around without fear that you will not be able to charge the car.

In view of this, AvtoVAZ itself draws the following perspective:

It makes no sense on its own, especially in the absencedemand, develop electric vehicle components. Indeed, partners from Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi have such products, and when the time comes, they can be applied on AvtoVAZ platforms.

At the moment, AvtoVAZ has two models of electric vehicles: Lada Ellada and Lada Vesta EV. Price tags for both 960 thousand and 3 million, respectively. You can purchase if you wish.

Lada Ellada for 960 thousand rubles

So you have to wait a long time because“The wizard in the blue helicopter” will not arrive soon, and electric cars will not occupy our market in the near future. But dreaming is never harmful - write, how would you start the electric car revolution? Where would you start? You can talk as much as you like about whether electric cars are better or worse, what to do? I see that many people are not indifferent to this topic, share your opinion in a telegram chat or here in the comments.