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Belorusneft to expand electric car charging stations chain up to over 600 stations by 2021
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MINSK, 5 March (BelTA) – The Belarusian automobile fuel retailer Belorusneft presented a chain of electric car charging stations Malanka (lighting in Belarusian) on 5 March, BelTA has learned.
Belorusneft Deputy Director General Andrei Kotik said: “The government has entrusted our company with creating the car charging infrastructure and investing more in the charging stations industry. In the past we had 17 charging stations. Over the period of slightly more than 1.5 years we’ve increased the number up to 251. Over 600 stations will be deployed by 2021. We expect the number of electric cars in Belarus to grow to 100,000 by 2025. In the future their number can grow up to 300,000.”
Belorusneft expects zero-rate import duties on electric cars to help increase the number of electric cars in the country.
Speaking about the economic side of the project, Andrei Kotik explained that the first few charging stations cost about €60,000-70,000, the situation changed later on, and now a car charging station costs up to $20,000. He explained that the volume of investments is determined not only by the cost of charging stations but the stations’ connections to the power grid. Whether deploying a car charging station requires additional investments and how much depends on it. Investments in the chain of superfast charging stations alone are expected to be close to €150 million. International banks can grant loans for the project. “It is an open question. We are in negotiations with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank,” Andrei Kotik explained.
In his words, the payback period of the charging stations chain will depend on several factors. Long-term financial products were allocated for these technologies. The payback period for such projects is in the neighborhood of 5-6 years, he explained.
At present the Malanka chain can charge about 9,000 electric cars per day. Belorusneft has installed charging stations at refueling stations on the country’s top motorways and in parking lots near major commercial, sport, and cultural facilities.
The company intends to expand the chain by 2022 in a way to be able to charge up to 35,000 cars. About 640 charging stations will be commissioned by 2022. Starting this year only fast charging stations will be deployed. They will be able to charge a car within seven minutes to add 35km to the driving distance. The charge will be sufficient for several trips in a city.
Apart from that, the Malanka chain is getting superfast charging stations as well. They can charge a car within 10-12 minutes to enable it to travel for 345km. The company intends to begin deploying such charging stations on major motorways and in the capital city. They will become available all over the country later on. The first superfast charging stations will be available for testing in late 2020. They are supposed to become fully operational by 2024.
Experts believe that electric cars will represent 20% of the world’s vehicle fleet by 2030. Many European countries are on track to reach this goal.
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