MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/. Siemens is in talks on supplies of charging stations for electric cars to Russia from Germany, President of Siemens in Russia Alexander Liberov said in an interview with TASS on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.
"We are currently negotiating two pilot projects on this topic (the supply of charging stations from Germany — TASS). One is for DC chargers, and the other is for AC chargers. They have different charging rates: one device allows you to charge the car very quickly, while the other charges it within a few hours," he specified.
Liberov recalled that there are very few charging stations for electric vehicles in Russia. There are only a few hundred in large cities, and the development of electric transport is impossible without building up a network of charging stations.
"In general, if we are talking about the Russian market for electric vehicles, then it is still in its embryonic state. There are only 11,000 electric vehicles out of 53 million cars registered in Russia. Of course, this is a drop in the ocean, but on the other hand, we see great growth dynamics, and this is important. Last year, 71% more electric vehicles were registered in Russia than the year before, so the growth is exponential," the head of Siemens in Russia said.
According to Liberov, the development of the electric vehicle market in Russia will most likely begin with large cities, and concerning a pilot stage, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Kazan would look interesting.
Localization and joint production
Touching on the localization of manufacturing charging stations in Russia, Liberov said that it should "make economic sense."
"It is clear that there are also political decisions, but in the end, it should be economically profitable for the manufacturer and supported by the market. In general, we are ready to consider this possibility, if there is government support for the development of the infrastructure market, then this is interesting. Perhaps, it may not just be the localization of manufacturing by Siemens, but also joint production, or localization on the basis of the production of a Russian partner," he said.
Liberov is confident that there are many interesting enterprises in Russia that could become partners from the point of view of organizing production.
"We ourselves have a production facility in Dubna, where it is also possible to provide some of the services that will lead to the creation of added value in Russia and to localization. Now, we are at the stage of studying this option and are open for dialogue with [our] Russian partners and, of course, with the government," he concluded.
Earlier, the Russian government approved a concept for the development of electric transport in Russia until 2030. The document lays out the priority tasks for the emerging industry, such as cultivating the production base, building up technological competencies, introducing fundamentally new products to the market, and creating a modern engineering and transportation infrastructure. Under the concept, by 2024, Russia will have manufactured at least 25,000 electric vehicles and will have opened more than 9,000 charging stations for them.