Car market, Energy, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Transport

Car Sales and Service Companies Estonian Union (AMTEL) CEO Sulev Narusk said that the fate and further sale of the electric cars depends largely on the state's plans.

"Subsidies have ended, sale is sparse to say the least, the transport development plan does not mention electric cars and the state supports the biogas issue. Thus, Estonia's future direction regarding electric cars is unknown," he said. "Elsewhere in Europe, sales are more intense, just as expected, where it is publicly supported. For example, Norway is the world's leading seller of electric cars. "

Narusk noted that the future sales of the new hybrid vehicles is also unpredictable, because their price is higher than that of ordinary cars and buying them requires a certain green thinking, which is not yet fully fed by the savings on fuel arising from the use of the cars.

"Environmental awareness is in some ways dependent on the income," he said. "The real income forces the Estonian buyers to still choose a vehicle with conventional fuel. Higher-income buyers can also take account other reasons, such as saving the environment, i.e. saving costs. "

The state owned foundation KredEx stopped accepting subsidy applications on August 7 last year. In total, 657 electric or hybrid vehicles were purchased in Estonia with state support.

According to the Highways Board data, at the end of August this year, 1,101 electric cars were in Estonian car registry. It does not include hybrid vehicles.

The most popular electric car by far is the small Mitsubishi i-MiEV. The lion's share of them were acquired by the state, which gave them to city and parish governments for social work. In the second place is the Nissan Leaf with 381 cars. Some of these are used as taxis in several cities. The third most popular is Tesla Model S and immediately after that, Volkswagen Up! with 41 and 40 vehicles respectively. The fifth is Mia Mia with 20 cars.