The active development of sustainable energy creates demand on the introduction of micro-grid systems in Ukraine, and growing popularity of electric cars creates demand on the installation of superchargers. A representative of the company Andriy Panchenko described the new trends at the Swedish-Ukrainian business forum held in Kyiv recently. According to him, the company has already built 25 MW solar power plants under an order of Ukrainian energy companies.
Panchenko told Interfax-Ukraine that ABB on the market of solar power plants offers complex solutions, supplying everything, except solar cell arrays and cables. He estimated ABB’s market share at about 10%.
The representative of the company said that this market is growing, and this year the volume of construction will exceed 30 MW.
With regard to the superchargers, Panchenko said that the company has already installed 15 devices with a capacity of 50 kW, and the largest customer was DTEK. In his opinion, this market will continue to grow rapidly, as Ukraine is now the fifth market in Europe for importing cars, and the number of high-speed charges on the market is still very low. In general, Panchenko said that the ABB business in Ukraine began to grow, and if in 2014 its staff decreased from 200 to 100, now it has about 120 employees.
Primary registrations of electric cars (new and used) in Ukraine grew by 50% in January-April 2018 year-over-year, to 1,044 cars, the Ukrautoprom association has reported. The share of used cars grew to 85% compared with 81% in January-April 2017.
Nissan Leaf is the most popular electric car with the market share of 69% (723 cars were registered, including 52 new cars).
BMW i3 was second with 58 cars registered, including 19 new ones.
Tesla Model S is third with 52 cars registered (18 new).
Mercedes-Benz B with 36 registered cars and Smart Fortwo Electric Drive with 32 registered cars were fourth and fifth respectively.
The number of electric cars imported to Ukraine in the first quarter of 2018 tripled year-over-year, to 1,744 vehicles, according to a posting on the website of the State Fiscal Service. The authority said that in January 2018, some 784 passenger cars and other vehicles with electric engines were imported compared with 132 in January 2017, in February 2018, some 413 vehicles were imported (181) and in March – 537 (237).
As reported, in 2017, some 2,700 electric cars were imported to Ukraine.
In 2018, electric vehicles and other vehicles equipped exclusively with an electric motor are exempted from taxation by excise duty and value added tax (VAT) when they are transported to the customs territory of Ukraine.
Ukrainian MPs have proposed to exempt from taxation and paying imports duty for spare parts and car and truck bodies for assembly of electric vehicles (cars and trucks) and electric buses in Ukraine, exempt buyers of electric cars from paying pension tax and extractors of lithium, manufacturers of batteries and electric cars from paying profit tax. Bills Nos. 8159 and 8160 amending the Tax and Customs codes of Ukraine were registered in the Verkhovna Rada on March 19 by MPs Nina Yuzhanina, Ihor Kononenko, Maksym Burbak, Oleh Liashko, Robert Horvat and some other lawmakers.
Bill No. 8159 introducing amendments to the Tax Code and some legislative acts to stimulate the development of the electric transport industry in Ukraine proposes, in particular, that until December 31, 2028, imports of spare parts for the production of vehicles equipped with one or several electric engines are exempted from paying VAT.
For the same period, the bill proposes to exempt the import of bodies (including cabs) for the production of vehicles equipped with electric engines from paying excise duty.
In addition, for this period, the payer of the personal income tax may include the cost of purchasing an electric vehicle or retrofitting to it in the tax discount and individual buyers of electric cars are proposed to be exempted from paying a compulsory pension insurance tax.
The document provides for exemption from taxation of profits of enterprises that sell lithium of their own production, lithium-ion (lithium-polymer) batteries, battery chargers, as well as electric cars and electric buses of their own production the period until December 31, 2032.
In addition, the deputies propose that from January 1, 2021, a share of at least 5% of parking lots equipped with chargers for parking electric vehicles is foreseen.