The Italy ofelectric car It has reverse gear engaged. The green diktat with which the EU Commission aims to block the sale of new petrol-powered vehicles from 2035 should have caused the opposite, yet still few citizens of the country are willing to buy a car with a plug to manage their own travel needs and of the family.
Thus, despite registrations growing during the first quarter (+5.7% to 450 thousand units), in the same period electric vehicles in Italy fell to just under 3 vehicles per hundred (2.9%). Also from January to March only Slovakia (2.6%), the Czech Republic (2.3%) and Croatia (1.3%) performed worse.
Why this debacle? Among the main problems with the spread of electric cars in our country are:
- a higher purchase cost of the equivalent internal combustion engine model;
- Car insurance policies are on average more expensive than all the other “traditional” ones, due to the higher repair costs following accidents.
Specifically, according to some calculations published by the Segugio.it portal, compared to an average of around 620 euros for an electric car insurance quote, 565 euros are paid for a diesel one, 483.9 euros for a petrol one and 468.2 euros for a hybrid, thus saving over 24%.
Added to the economic reasons are a problem of flexibility of use, due to the still small number of charging stations in operation outside large population centers. Especially in the South.
In any case, three Italian electric cars per cent of the first quarter pale in comparison to the other main economies of the old continent: France stands at 17.9%, the United Kingdom at 15.5% and Germany at a still flattering 11.7 percent.
The launch of one is expected soon new season of incentives which could lead some motorists to reconsider their purchasing choices. However, it should make us think that in all the previous scrapping campaigns to modernize a fleet that remains among the oldest in Europe, the ceiling of government bonuses for petrol cars ran out almost immediately while that for electric vehicles remained not very popular.
Some people object that bonuses for e-cars are too low compared to list prices, and that’s probably true. But the fact remains that the champion of the electric car in Europe is Norwaythat is, a state that finances the transition with oil revenues collected into its sovereign fund.
A logical short circuit in terms that escapes the obsession with decarbonisation promoted by the left and the environmental Taliban. The same people who, in the university context, would like to refuse research funding provided by the energy big names and say they are against nuclear power.
Many, starting with Mr. Toyota, have already realized that cars with plugs will not be able to become hegemonic any time soon, due to the many problems that still afflict them. It is not for nothing that the Hertz rental company has decided to get rid of thousands of green vehicles.
Not to mention that a motorist who today drives a Euro 2 or Euro 3 class vehicle is unlikely to switch to an electric-only vehicle tomorrow. Rather, also due to obvious spending limits, it will turn to the used market in search of a petrol solution with fewer emissions and which can still enter city centers without excessive penalties.
In short, Stellantis’ plan to concentrate production in Italy does not seem like an idea. The disappointing sales results just released by the Franco-Italian group led by Carlos Tavares and chaired by John Elkann are confirmation of this.
Read also: Unilever thinks again and abandons the green Taliban.
Until a few years ago, top managers were measured by the results they managed to bring to shareholders, but now everything seems to have been sacrificed on the ESG altar. A religion that often falls into extremism or turns into heresy. Are we sure we earned it?
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