July 29, 2013

Electric cars in an oil-rich country



Eco-friendly cars are still not popular in Russia, due to their high price, the lack of charging stations and insufficient state support. RIR attempts to find out if they are needed at all in the capital of the world’s second largest oil producer.

According to the newspaper Kommersant, on July 22 the Russian postal monopoly Pochta Rossii turned down a contract with the auto group Renault to rent 12 electric cars. This contract, worth 15.9 million rubles ($490,700) was agreed upon prior to a recent change of leadership in the company, and it was later reviewed.

Whereas, at first, Pochta Rossii wanted to purchase 100 electric cars immediately to serve the Sochi Olympics, it became clear after company assessments that the cars would never pay for themselves.