Unfortunately, the market remains a luxury for most Greeks and Europeans in general. electric carbecause despite any subsidies that were given to Greece, purchase price in some cases, this is even twice as much as a conventional (gasoline) car.

Thus, while in Europe more than one in five cars are now electric (pure electric or hybrid), in more than half of the EU member states the corresponding market share is below 10%. Market shares are high only in the Nordic countries, led by Sweden, where more than half of the cars sold in 2022 were electric, which is very closely related, as indicated by European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), mainly from income. Thus, it is no coincidence that the highest market shares are registered in the Scandinavian countries, which have a high per capita income, as well as a well-established general use of “green” technologies in many aspects of everyday life.

Reinforcement

In Greece, the market share of electric vehicles was 7.9% in 2022, and this percentage would be much lower were it not for subsidies in the context of program “I move on electricity”. The program in question, and in particular the “Movement on electricity 2”, “works” throughout 2023 until the budget (it is set at 50 million euros) is exhausted, through which the purchase or rental is only purely electric car to market is subsidized by 30% of the pre-tax retail price and up to the amount of 8,000 euros. The above market share is one of the lowest in the European Union and the smallest after Cyprus in Southern Europe. The exception is Portugal, which, despite having a relatively low net income per capita (€14,897 in 2021), has a high EV market share of 21.70%. The reason is that purchase incentives (subsidies) and tax incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles have been applied in Portugal since 2017.

The largest sales are registered in the Scandinavian countries, which have a high per capita income, as well as a “green” culture.

“Despite the efforts of the European Union at the legislative level to reduce CO2 emissions from vehicles, there is a marked lack of incentives at both Community and national level that could accelerate the strengthening of the electric vehicle market,” argues ACEA, adding that its latest The data confirms that the lack of financial flexibility remains a major barrier for European consumers, many of whom are forced to avoid buying an electric car.

It is worth noting that a market share of over 30% of electric vehicles registered in 2022 was recorded in only five EU countries. These are Sweden (56.1%), Denmark (38.6%), Finland (37.6%), the Netherlands (34.5%) and Germany (31.4%). The lowest market shares were recorded in Slovakia (3.7%), Czech Republic (3.9%), Bulgaria (4%), Poland (5%) and Croatia (5%).

Charging networks

However, a deterrent to buying an electric car is the lack of a large network of charging stations. While sales of electric vehicles have grown 17-fold since 2016, the number of charging stations in Europe has increased six-fold over the same period, according to ACEA.

In Greece in 2022 there were 1021 outlets. However, they have been increasing recently as more supermarket chains, large stores and car parks are installing electric vehicle chargers. The largest charger network in the EU has the Netherlands (111,821 outlets in 2022), 23.3% of chargers in the entire EU.