Sitronics has completed a pilot creation of an electric charging infrastructure in Moscow and is planning deliveries to other regions. So far, solutions provided in partnership with a subsidiary of Rostec, but Sitronics wants to create a full cycle of production of filling stations and occupy 30% of the market in the coming years, noting the actual absence of competition. However, the fleet of electric vehicles in Russia is growing slowly, and experts are skeptical about its prospects.
Sitronics President Nikolai Pozhidaev told Kommersant that the company is entering the electric charging infrastructure market. In Moscow, 12 express chargers from Sitronics are already operating in pilot mode. In the future, the company plans to enter the regions with charging stations without specifying details. A Kommersant source familiar with the company’s plans says that they are talking about Nizhny Novgorod and St. Petersburg. In three to four years, Sitronics expects to occupy up to 30% of the Russian market for electric charging infrastructure, the sales volume of which, according to the company, amounts to several tens of billions of rubles.
Today there are about 450 stations in Russia, but “no one has yet made large, deployed networks of electric filling stations in the country – this is a fairly open new market,” emphasizes Mr. Pozhidaev.
Now charging stations are being developed in partnership with Concern Radioelectronic Technologies JSC (part of Rostec), but “in the future” Sitronics plans to create a full production cycle, says Nikolay Pozhidaev. Initial investments in development and “hardware”, according to him, amounted to 200 million rubles. “The main investments in such projects are aimed at providing infrastructure: the charging station needs to be connected, wires must be laid in the city. The amount of investment in this depends on the specific region: in Moscow, for example, the costs will amount to several billion rubles”, Sitronics explains.
“Market” of charging stations in Russia is virtually absent, says Sergey Rozhenko, deputy director of the practice for work with companies in the energy and utilities sector of KPMG in Russia and the CIS. According to him, there are actually operating chargers only in city bus fleets, free charging stations found near some shopping and entertainment centers or business centers.
In other cases, taking into account the minimum number of electric vehicles in the country, each owner decides the issue charging individually, and the expectations of market participants regarding the mass development of charging are concentrated on the potential of taxi fleets and car sharing”, the expert believes.
In 2019, only 353 new electric vehicles were sold and 3.3 thousand used units, in 2020 the entire market of electric vehicles in Russia amounted to almost almost 6 thousand pieces of which 5.3 thousand – with mileage, notes Dmitry Babansky from SBS Consulting. Slightly less than 10% of sales of electric vehicles in 2020 fell on the Volga Federal District (which includes Nizhny Novgorod), and the Far East and the Siberian Federal District occupied more than half of the market, but these are almost all used electric vehicles, the analyst says. In his opinion, in 2021 it is not worth expecting a change in the geographical structure, and the market for electric vehicles will grow to 9-10 & nbsp; thousand. things. In his opinion, the choice of Sitronics in Nizhny Novgorod may be due, among other things, to the development of projects of the GAZ group – for example, the production of Gazelles e-NN.
The authorities are preparing a program to support electric vehicles
Infrastructure depends on the electric vehicle market, where government support is the driver, Nikolai Pozhidaev admits. As part of the new program for the development of electric transport by 2030, it is planned to increase the share of electric vehicles from 0.1% to 15% of the market in 2030 (see Kommersant, 18 May). The budget of the program until 2030 is 418 billion rubles, of which 153.5 billion rubles. from the budget and extrabudgetary funds. Now electric cars are being tested, for example, by Russian Post on the routes of postal and courier delivery, said Stanislav Chernin, Advisor to the General Director of the company for innovations.
However, the realism of growth, which is mentioned in the program, raises questions. Kommersant’s interlocutors in the IT market expect that by 2030 electric cars will occupy only 2-3% of the market. At a high cost, they explain, in terms of range and charging time, electric cars still lag behind cars on traditional fuel.
Yulia Stepanova, Olga Nikitina
Kommersant