Author: Blerina Allushi
Although everyone agrees that electric cars are the future of transportation and interest in them is high, the country is moving slowly in preparing the infrastructure that would make their rapid spread possible.
At first, electric cars are tested for curiosity, then they turn into a lifestyle, favored by a great advantage: You can travel comfortably, without causing noise and pollution to the environment.
For more than a year, Albanians no longer have to go abroad to try traveling with electric cars.
[pullquote]In Tirana, the taxi service has started to be offered through electric cars, while in Durrës everyone can try the "tricycle", which is charged with energy.[/pullquote]
"At first I was curious about what it was like to travel in such a car.
I already use it very often, as it does not burn fuel and does not pollute the environment", Ilda Fishti told the Center for Quality Journalism.
She is a high school teacher and often uses electric taxis to get to and from work.
In December 2016, the first electric taxi started its engine in Tirana and Jutbina Katana, administrator of Saytaxi, says that the demand for this service is already high.
According to her, at first everyone was skeptical, if Tirana was ready for these taxis and the fear of failure was great.
"In our beginnings, there were people who called just to try the experience of traveling with electric cars. Now we have loyal customers", she emphasizes.
There are currently 17 electric vehicles in their fleet, while they expect to add another 30 soon.
In Tirana, starting from 2017, Green Taxi, another taxi service that uses only electric cars, also operates. Also, there are some taxi drivers who have bought electric cars and offer this service outside the companies.
An electric car is charged at a special energy source through a cable at what are called charging stations. It is enough to leave the car on charge for 6 to 8 hours and it is ready to cover a distance of 150 to 200 km.
Meanwhile, electronic developments have also brought Fast Charger, a special cable, which reduces the time of fully charging the car to 30 minutes.
Currently in Tirana there are several points for charging electric cars and in three of them the vehicles can be charged with Fast Charger.
A profitable market
An electric car of the Nissan Leaf type requires 30 kWh of energy to cover a distance of about 160 km. In Albania, this costs a little more than 420 Lek (1kWh=14 Lek).
Meanwhile, a car with an average engine for the same distance would require about 15 liters of fuel with a value of approximately 2,500 Lek (1 liter of petrol = 170 Lek).
As a result of rapid electronic developments, the cost of purchasing an electric car is expected to decrease. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, within a decade electric cars will be cheaper to buy compared to those that use fuel.
But between all-electric cars and traditional internal combustion cars there is a middle ground: the hybrid engine vehicle.
Currently, car concessionaires in Tirana are increasingly facing the demand for these cars that combine energy with fuel, but there is also a demand for the purchase of all-electric cars in Albania.
Orion Mino, sales manager at Hyndai Albania, told the Center for Quality Journalism that, despite the fact that hybrid or electric cars are expensive compared to fuel-powered ones, Albanians are interested in buying them.
"There is satisfactory demand", he emphasized. Currently, the IONIQ type cars that this concessionaire provides are worth 30 euros.
Also, Porche Albania, which has the Volkswagen franchise in Albania, has been advertising several models of hybrid and electric cars since the end of 2016.
An advantage highlighted by electric car enthusiasts is the low need for engine repairs, at a time when poor fuel quality is considered their main detriment.
An investigation by the Center for Quality Journalism found that the quality of Albanian fuels left much to be desired.
Infrastructure preparation
But what the enthusiasts of these cars suffer today in Albania is the lack of infrastructure.
In 2014, for the first time, the need to create charging stations for electric cars was sanctioned in a decision of the Council of Ministers. In the Road Code Enforcement Regulation, a requirement was added to establish these stations within two years within each service area – which means the points where cars are refueled.
But now, when more than three years have passed since the entry into force of this decision, the Center for Quality Journalism finds that the points where cars are supplied with fuel do not have charging stations.
Currently, there are several such stations in Tirana, but all of them are built by private taxi operators or companies that sell electric cars.
But despite the unfulfilled tasks that would make it easier to use electric cars in Albania, government representatives have not hesitated to express their enthusiasm regarding their use.
In October 2016, the State Police presented 11 electric patrol cars in Tirana, a gift from the Electricity Distribution Operator, OSHEE. The charging stations for these cars were placed near the Ministry of the Interior.
Likewise, in September 2017, the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, praised the electric taxi service and promised that soon buses powered by electricity would be used in the capital. Veliaj also uses a hybrid car to get around Tirana.
But, when asked when electric buses would be used for public transport, the Municipality of Tirana emphasized: "We are in the phase of evaluating factors that can facilitate public transport operators undertaking the initiative of introducing electric vehicles".
[pullquote]Today in the country there is still no private business subsidy to increase the use of electric vehicles.[/pullquote]
The activist of environmental issues, Lavdosh Feruni, said that the use of electric transport currently in Albania is purely symbolic.
According to him, the air in many cities of the country is outside the allowed norms and that the use of electric cars would help to clean it.
"Albania is at a symbolic, very modest stage in this field. The minimum should be half of the fleet of vehicles in circulation to have a visible environmental effect", said Feruni.
According to him, the state subsidy in this regard should be large, starting from the removal of customs fees for these cars.
"This is a demand of the time and a world trend. This means less expenses for the state budget, since clean air means fewer diseases and less expenses for medicine", he emphasized.
