Three necessary steps that will determine how quickly Lithuania will tame green transport
One of the areas where we will feel the biggest surge in the near future is transport. How is Lithuania succeeding in taming electric cars and green public transport, what measures need to be taken to accelerate the damage to the country’s transport sector and how to redirect our ambitious EU plans for implementing our quality of life? This and even more bus talks about visas are already this Saturday for the first time in the second season show “Innovation DNA”.
The whole world lives in the mood of the green course. States are stepping up their commitment to mitigating climate change, and businesses and start-ups are finding incredible goods that allow them to move closer to the circular economy and sustainable consumption. Electric vehicles are one of the most effective measures that can be taken to achieve the EU’s ambitious 2050 target.
However, on the other hand, currently over 8 thousand people are registered in Lithuania. minibuses, buses and trolleybuses, of which as much as 88% are powered by diesel, 5 percent. – electricity, and 3 percent. – natural gas. The numbers speak for themselves, so Lithuania already provides for stricter “green procurement” requirements for public transport – until 2026. the volume of purchases of clean buses must be 80%. all bus purchases, and by 2030. A very ambitious goal of purchasing only clean public transport will be achieved by the end of 2007.
According to Simonas Ramanauskas, a green public transport expert and director of UAB Busnex, in the show “Innovov DNR”, very few electric buses currently run on Lithuanian roads, although the good practice of other countries shows that rights would be added, such buses could get the desired city needs. .
“When it comes to electrification of transport, the most advanced are, of course, the Scandinavian countries, but even our Polish neighbors are a few steps ahead, and already 10-15%. their public transport consists of electric buses. At that time in Lithuania it was possible to count only up to 20 units. Stricter requirements and green procurement give everyone hope that by the end of next year, the number of electric bus buses in Lithuania will be 3-4 times higher.
We still need to upgrade infrastructure problems – to charge buses, need high power voltages, then operators are still afraid to switch to green transport, because there are doubts about how they want to believe how to get transport during the day or power outages. In addition, roughly speaking, an electric bus is twice as expensive as a fossil fuel. In terms of fuel, maintenance and other costs, this bus would pay for itself in 10 years.
On the other hand, from the very first day of operation, such a bus has contributed to a greener environment, cleaner air, and then its benefits to nature and people are really obvious, ”says Busnex, director of environmentally friendly solutions for transport and aircraft robotics. S Ramanauskas.
Not much better situation in Lithuania and with electric cars. Although their number is growing every year, it is just a drop in the ocean compared to the entire car fleet in the country. “In many cases, an electric car is more expensive, and every buyer, both natural and legal, calculates costs and payback. If you drive around the city a lot, a lot of electric cars pay off if you want to – then the car remains a luxury item. You want to encourage the electrification of the country’s transport, in particular, and the bureaucracy of compensation payments must be kept to a minimum. It must be as easy as possible for businesses to replace their polluting fleet with electric cars.
Second, it is an aggressive promotion policy. It is well illustrated by the example of Norway. In order to encourage the purchase of electric cars, this country simply deducted VAT and after 2 years was happy with the excellent results: the market share of registered electric cars reached 51%. Third, the state needs to allocate much better infrastructure, ie charging stations. When the entire infrastructure has become simple and convenient, and it will be economically beneficial to drive electric cars, then we will get a real breakthrough, ”says Laurynas Boguševičius.
More insights into the challenges of the green course can be found in the show “Innovation DNA”, which is shown every Saturday at 11.30 am on Lietuvos Rytas television.