Victor Battistino (left) and Peter Paul Barbara with the quadricycle they use.

Transport Malta is anticipating a good response to its grant scheme for the purchase of electric vehicles by commercial companies.

The first grants were issued last year for non-commercial electric vehicles, giving €5,000 if the driver scrapped a vehicle, or €4,000 if not.

There was also a grant of €1,500 towards an electric quadricycle, and since these can be bought second-hand from the UK for around £5,000, it brought the cost down to very accessible levels.

The current scheme was extended to second-hand electric vehicles as these were very often put onto the market within a short time with very low mileages.

But since the heaviest users tend to be commercial vehicles like delivery vans, TM decided to extend the scheme. Companies can now get a total of €10,000 towards electric vehicles, which they can use towards the purchase of as many as they wish.

The government’s target is to have 5,000 electric cars by 2020. With just 205 on the islands at the end of 2014, up from 80 in 2012 – of which only 24 are commercial – there is clearly a long way to go.

But the situation was not conducive to increasing those figures.

“Importers claimed that there was no demand because there was no infrastructure – but there was no infrastructure because there were only a few cars. It was a chicken-and-egg situation and someone had to step in to break the impasse,” the national coordinator of the Malta National Electromobility Platform Peter Paul Barbara said.

The schemes were part of an action plan for electromobility launched in November 2013, which set out dozens of projects. The clock is ticking: the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive will come into force soon and each member state has to set up a suitable infrastructure. The standard is to have around one charging point for every 10 cars – which means Malta would need 500. So far, 45 pillars have been installed in various places, each with two charging points.

“Since technology is changing so fast, it does not make sense to install all 500 points as they would be obsolete by the time there were enough vehicles to merit the number,” he said.

Transport Malta has so far had two pilot projects. The first for electric vehicles, Demo EV, was launched in September 2011 roping in the Gozo, Resource and Transport Ministries, Transport Malta and Enemalta. Demo EV, which tapped into the EU’s Life+ programme, brought 24 cars to Malta.

Ryan Buttigieg, general manager of International Cars which imports the Kia Soul, believes that there is a social obligation involved.

“EVs are not a cost-effective operation for importers but without such initiatives, ecological responsibilities and objectives cannot be met. The major benefit will be to create brand value and recognition,” he said.

“We had ‘roadshows’ – if you excuse the pun – and got prominent people, including journalists, to use the cars for a while. But apart from the exposure, the important thing is that it pushed us to start installing charging points straight away,” MNEP senior manager Victor Battistino added.

Mitsubishi provided eight i-MiEVs to the government, which generated a steady stream of enquiries from both individuals and companies, but uptake was lower than expected, Industrial Motors managing director Ian Mizzi said.

“From our informal research, there are three main obstacles to the adoption of the technology. One is fear of being among the first adopters of the technology. People prefer others to lead the way and take the ‘risk’.

“The second is the high price of EVs. Most people make the mistake of comparing the purchase price of an electric vehicle to that of a similar-sized conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. What they should be comparing is the total cost of ownership, which is much lower.

“The third is ‘range anxiety’, but this fear is exaggerated in a small country such as ours. Typically, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV can achieve around 120-150km range on a single charge,” Mr Mizzi said – enough for three to four days for the average user.

The second project centred around the port and the theme of carbon-neutral transport. Photovoltaic panels on the roof of the Transport Malta building are being commissioned and three solar-powered charging stations are being built by the Transport Ministry, using co-funding from the EU. These use PV panels to generate the electricity and can take up to four cars simultaneously.

But the aspect that has Mr Barbara as enthusiastic as a child is the possibility of eventually installing fast charging points for public use to complement those in the Transport Malta car park, which will charge 80 per cent of the battery in newer EVs within less than 20 minutes.

“Technology is moving fast and the latest buses, which will be put on the market soon, can take a superfast booster charge – in just four minutes!” he said.

The factors that worked against electric cars are all being whittled away. The cost of the cars is coming down dramatically – one which cost €38,000 three years ago now costs €16,500 – and they are holding their value much more than they did when they were still ‘exotic’ and used only by early adopters.

Meanwhile the technology of batteries and charging stations is improving, which means that vehicles can travel further on one charge.

The return on investment and practicality is all starting to make real sense. At this point in time electricity from the government’s charging points is free, for example, with just a nominal charge for the administration of the scheme which allows drivers to book slots at the charging points via an online portal.

But while agreeing that the increase in charging points would solve ‘range anxiety’, Mr Butttigieg feels that the monthly expense of enrolling for the charging point card could be prohibitive for their use.

The MNEP hopes that drivers will focus on the long-term savings, which are considerable.

“We estimate that the average driver would save some 60 per cent of their fuel costs – around €900 to €1,000 on petrol every year. It can cost as little a €1.80 to fully charge a car,” Mr Barbara said.

“And the maintenance is much less as there are no moving parts, and no oil or filters to worry about.”