Malta may be jolted into action over electric cars
Portuguese experts here to advise government
A team of experts was working on proposals to increase electric car use in Malta and would be passing on its submissions to the government, Resources Minister George Pullicino said yesterday.
“Imagine for European mobility week Valletta with no noise and no pollution,” said Joao Dias, coordinator of electric mobility for the Portuguese Cabinet.
Mr Dias was here with other members of a team that has masterminded a pilot network in Portugal, recognised worldwide for having one of the most advanced infrastructures for electric vehicles. The Portuguese have been sharing their expertise with the Maltese team.
The local team was appointed a month ago to propose a proper infrastructure and a string of incentives for people to choose electric vehicles, Mr Pullicino said. He would not, however, commit to a concrete timeline for the project.
“They set out to search for best practises in other countries and discovered Portugal,” Mr Pullicino said in a meeting with the Portuguese experts.
Portugal was the first European country to install charging points throughout the country and planned to have 1,300 slow charging points by 2011, when its project would go into full swing. Portuguese citizens would also benefit from a number of fiscal incentives to use electric cars and 20 per cent of the public vehicle fleet would run on electricity, the experts said.
The charging points are being set up in streets, supermarkets, hotels and parking lots and an integrated IT system allows users to be able to search for a point and book their place in advance.
Electric vehicles were mainly charged at night, when energy obtained from renewable resources, namely wind in Portugal, would otherwise be wasted, Dr Dias said, pointing out that this maximised their efficiency.
“While a normal car uses some €7 of diesel to travel 100 kilometres, electric vehicles use about 50 per cent less,” he explained.
The plan for Portugal, Dr Dias said, was to cut carbon dioxide emissions and oil imports, which made up one third of Portugal’s external debts.
“A number of main car manufacturers are working on electric vehicles that will reach the international market by 2011 and 2012,” Mr Pullicino said, adding that such new cars would be family sized and, therefore, made electrical travel more realistic.