An eco-investment fund is rolling out thousands of charging stations for electric cars across Russia. But despite the green drive, critics say the future is not electric.
Space is at a premium on Moscow’s roadways, and clean air is hard to come by.
But if the CEO of Revolta has anything to do with it, the game may be changing – with a vast network of 2,000 charging stations for battery-powered cars sprouting up in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Samara and Kaluga.
The company and its American investors claim the 1.5 billion rubles sunk into this project will clear cities of air pollution, and keep roads quieter. This sounds perfect for the frazzled nerves of commuters, who move within a 35 kilometer radius regularly. Revolta thinks it is the start of a new trend.
“I drive an i-MiEV, for example,” Maxim Osorin, Revolta CEO, told RT. “Every second traffic light stop I get a lot of attention from a lot of people around, because people have a very little opportunity to see cars on the go and when an X-5 owner sees this little car pass him by, it’s really trendy.”
There is no denying that top-of-the-line models are not cheap, though total the total cost of ownership is quite low. You are not paying for the ever-changing gas prices or maintaining oil, and fewer moving parts mean fewer repairs. A big question on everybody’s mind is, however, resale value.