The share of electric cars in new car sales will double in 2023 thanks to fleet purchases by companies and authorities, according to automotive market experts. They point out that in the optimistic variant, the first million electric cars will be driving on Polish roads after 2030.

“I expect this year to achieve (by electric vehicles) a 5% share in the total number of registrations of new vehicles, compared to 2.6% last year. This is an ambitious target, and with a confluence of favourable circumstances it could be as high as 7 %”, said Carsmile vice-president Michal Knitter.

Samar’s figures show that 12,700 new fully-electric cars will be registered in Poland in 2022. The Polish Alternative Fuels Association reports that such vehicles made up at the end of November last year 29.8 thousand units.

In the opinion of Carsmile’s vice-president, the sale in 2023 of around 22.5 thousand fully-electric cars – i.e. its doubling in relation to the previous year, with the assumed total sales of new cars in Poland at around 450 thousand, is possible, as the demand for zero-emission cars is steadily increasing. In addition, the pandemic and limited access to new cars caused companies not to replace fleets in 2022 and they will make up for it this year.

According to Knitter, quite many orders for zero-emission vehicles will also come from public administration and local authorities due to the statutory obligation to electrify a large proportion of fleets. In two years, central government offices will be required to have 50 % electrified vehicles in their fleets, while self-government offices will be required to have 30 %.

According to the Polish Alternative Fuels Association (PSPA), Poles’ interest in electric cars is steadily growing – from 12 % to 42.4 % in six years. A barrier to electromobility may be poor infrastructure – in 2022, there were around 5,000 publicly available charging points for electric cars in Poland. According to PSPA forecasts, their number is expected to increase to 42.1 thousand by 2025.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński