Earlier this month IENE completed a major study which deals with the prospects for the Electric Vehicle Market in Greece and SEE and potential business opportunitiesEarlier this month IENE completed a major study which deals with the prospects for the Electric Vehicle Market in Greece and SEE and potential business opportunities. This study,which commenced in November 2017, has been conducted as a multi-client study project backed by some of Greece’s leading energy companies including Systems Sunlight, the Mytilineos Group, Hellenic Petroleum, HEDNO S.A. (Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator S.A.) and KG Law Firm. The study was presented to the above group of companies on June 14 in a closed session organized by IENE and held in the offices of KG Law Firm, a long standing corporate member and supporter of IENE.
The study describes the current developments
in the electric veh
icle (EV) architecture and battery technology focusing on
the current trends of the EV market in Europe and globally. In addition, it identifies the obstacles,which Electric Vehicles
(EVs), as a disruptive technology, face in their path towards adoption. These challenges
are mainly the current EV technology limitations resulting to a high cost of
acquisition, limited electric driving range, limited
charging infrastructure availability and long charging time. On the other hand,aggressive support
policies, zero-energy-vehicle mandates and fiscal incentives have been
identified as the main drivers for EV expansion and adoption globally. Observation
of the EV market has shown a very high learning curve, which prominent analysts
estimate that it could lead to deployment 60 million new EVs per year by 2040.
This is expected to occur as a result of the rapid decline of the cost
intensive EV battery component and its technology development towards higher
energy density, which consequently will make EVs more competitive against
conventional ICE vehicles.
In addition, the study explores the EV market development in Greece, which has performed poorly the first years of its existence. However, market initiatives have been on sight, with the most important one being the proposed development of a nationwide charging network system by Greece’s DSO, currently under review by the Regulatory Authority for Energy. The legislative framework governing EV adoption in the country, which iscurrently under development,is beingthoroughly reviewed.
Also, the introduction of EVs isconsidered as part of the solution, coupled with the high penetration of RES, for the decarbonization of the on-road transportation. Avoided tailpipe GHG emissions and other air pollutants by substituting conventional ICE vehicles, while it is one of the main environmental benefits of EVs,it is not the only one. Noise pollution mitigation, avoided life cycle emissions of vehicle components as well as the avoided primary energy use, wastewater generation and emissions from the fuel refinery process are some significant environmental contributions of electric mobility.
A key finding of the study is that EV adoption mandates partly the reconstruction of the energy sector. Charging technologies are developing rapidly towards standardization and interoperability, while different charging schemes and strategies will be used by new market entities, PEV aggregators, aiming in providing optimal charging services from a cost-benefit perspective, while performing temporal allocation of EV charging loads to provide ancillary services to the grid. Moreover, new installed power generating capacity will be required in the region to facilitate EV penetration, while events during mass EV charging like harmonic distortion and distribution congestion must be thoroughly considered and mitigated in each system separately.
The aim of this latest IENE study has been to provide an indication for the present and future of EV markets in Greece, South East Europe and globally and describe latest trends especially with regard to investment opportunities.Such opportunities are to be found following the impact of EV adoption in the automotive manufacturing sector and the mass expansion of the energy sector caused bythe electrification of transport. Consequently, this study will provide a much needed reference to market participants in order to assess market development with regard to power generation, power distribution and socioeconomic cost allocation for infrastructure installations.
The IENE team is now preparing a working paper based on the study which will be published early in July and will be uploaded on IENE’s website.
