03.12.2020.
He added that HRK 54 million had been provided this year just for stimulating the purchase of electric vehicles and charging stations, and that these funds had been depleted very quickly due to the high interest.
During the meeting, the representatives of the association Strujni krug Hrvoje Prpić and Saša Cvetojević presented the activities of the association, which has around 700 members, and which promotes the modernisation of the transport infrastructure in Croatia with the aim of increasing the number of electric vehicles on our roads.
The representatives of Strujni krug presented to the director of the Fund and his colleagues their initiative for the pilot project they wanted to launch in cooperation with the units of local self-government and the Croatian companies, with the aim of providing sufficient chargepoints for the vehicles by installing charging sockets in the public lighting columns. “There are still many obstacles discouraging the people from using EVs, and one of them is certainly the lacking infrastructure, especially for the citizens living in apartment buildings. With the implementation of this project, this infrastructure would be dispersed and made more accessible, so the cars would no longer have to be charged in the parking lots with charging points and car owners could do it in their neighbourhoods,” explained Saša Cvetojević.
One of the topics discussed at the meeting was the form of implementation of the Fund’s public calls regarding co-financing the purchase of electric vehicles. The association is aware of the limited funding, and they welcome the intention of the Fund to increase this amount year-on-year, circumstances allowing. Hrvoje Prpić said that the members of the association discussed the modalities of EV incentives, and that they would submit their proposals concerning this issue to the Fund in writing.
Prpić also pointed out that it was commendable that incentives in Croatia were among the highest in Europe, and this most certainly was the driving force behind the promotion of these types of vehicles. All the participants agreed that in the future the amount of the incentive should be revised, since every year more and more different car makes and models are introduced that will soon become competitive pricewise with the traditional vehicles.
At the end of the meeting, Director Kukić pointed out that the Fund was open for dialogue to all professional associations, and that he was willing to consider all constructive ideas about the use of “green” technologies.
