Fully electric cars are offered by two Szczecin showrooms. A Nissan dealer, Polmotor, has been selling Leaf hatchbacks (price starting at PLN 128 thousand) and e-NV200 delivery vans (price starting at PLN 134 thousand) since April. So far it sold three cars. The BMW Bońkowscy showroom has sold four i3 vehicles this year (its price starts at PLN 153 thousand).

 

According to the information available at the Departments of Motor Vehicles in Szczecin and the Police district there have registered two fully electric cars each. There are three more in the Gryfiński, Stargardzki and Świnoujski districts.

 

“In the Szczecin Metropolitan Area there are 20 electric vehicles registered, but the majority of them are Melexes and mopeds. In Szczecin there is a BMW i3 and Nissan Leaf bought by the Regional Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management and West Pomeranian Police bought as part of a project to promote electric cars. There is also a Tesla car in Szczecin, but it is registered in Gdynia,” says Paweł Ogrodnik, representative of the Szczecin Metropolitan Area Association who dealt with the subject of electric cars in the region.

 

Owners of electric and hybrid cars driving around Szczecin may park almost for free. They pay PLN 10 a year compared to even PLN 1.5 thousand paid by other drivers.

 

However, so far nobody has decided to take out a low-interest (2 percent a year) loan to buy an electric car, offered, for the first time in Poland, by the Szczecin division of the Regional Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management.

 

“We had 60 persons willing to apply, but so far we have not concluded any agreement, usually due to the short time the beneficiary had to actually purchase the vehicle. The deadline was the end of the year. Another obstacle is the fact that Szczecin still doesn’t have public electric vehicle charging infrastructure,” says Sebastian Kaczmarek, Director for Domestic Funds at the Regional Fund For Environmental Protection and Water Management in Szczecin and says that a new edition of the programme will be released in January 2017.

 

More charging stations

 

An electric car may be charged from a regular socket at one’s garage wall. It takes several hours (unless the car is equipped with an appropriate charger), costs a dozen or so zlotys and is enough to drive 100-200 kilometres. However, if we are on our way and the battery is low, we start looking for an electric charging station. The latest one has been operating since mid December at Kosmos Art & Business office building. Charging is included in the parking fee of PLN 2 per hour. Free charging is offered by stations at the Regional Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management at Partyzantów Street in Szczecin, Leroy Merlin home improvement store at Golisza Street, Nissan Polmotor showrooms at Struga Street and Hakena Roundabout and the division of Sweden’s Garo, a manufacturer of charging stations, at Szymborskiej Street. The internet site  www.plugshare.com provides addresses of charging stations away from Szczecin in Świnoujście, Białogard and Strzekęcin near Koszalin.

 

More showrooms in Szczecin are planning to launch electric cars charging stations. In Poland such points appear next to shops and discount stores.

 

There will be two more stations provided as part of a project delivered by Slovakia’s Greenway Infrastructure, which has started the construction of 75 fast charging points in Poland located near national road and motorways. The entire project, supported by the European Union, is scheduled to end by September 2018. The stations will appear near Szczecin and Lipiany, along the S3 road.

 

“At the end of the next year there should be a QC20 station next to the Garo plant. It will charge a BMW i3 car in a little over an hour, whether it will be equipped with an onboard charger,” says Marek Samborski, CEO of Garo Polska Sp. z o.o.

 

Produced for exports

 

On the map of electric car industry in Poland Szczecin is shown as a place which manufactures charging stations. Throughout Poland there are 35 stations manufactured at the plant at Szymborskiej Street, owned by the Sweden’s Garo group. Electric charging points are located next to the Gdańsk City Hall, Polish Academy of Sciences in Jabłonna, Technology Park in Kielce and at the parking lot next to the Półwiejska 2 commercial building in Poznań.

 

This year Garo Polska’s plant will produce over 2 thousand small wall stations used in garages, gardens or company’s parking lots. Overall production in 2016 will reach 234 thousand products. The majority of them is exported, mainly to the Scandinavian market. The company hires nearly 60 persons.

 

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