14/6/2023 |Articles are machine translated
Illustrative picture | Photo: Škoda Auto
The Prague City Council is considering a proposal to end free parking for electric cars in Prague. The way in which the fate of this measure is decided is already having a negative impact on the development of electromobility in the Czech Republic.
Prague Deputy Mayor for Transport Zdeněk Hřib said, “We have a coalition agreement that we will reform the entire system in order to calm traffic in the city centre. We will have to stop supporting electric cars that park for free. Because this is something that made sense in the past, but now it doesn’t make sense anymore. An electric car takes up space like any other car.”
Associations representing the automotive and electric vehicle industry are convinced that any such decision would increase emissions and noise from traffic in Prague and send the wrong signal to the public. Prague and its surroundings are the most economically strong area of the Czech Republic, and the opportunity to park for free in Prague during commuting to work is one of the few benefits that owners of electric cars in the Czech Republic receive. The lack of support puts the Czech Republic among the last in Europe in the adoption of locally emission-free mobility.
The argument that those who have enough money to buy an electric car also have enough to pay for parking is very unfortunate. People considering buying an electric car may end up preferring a car with a conventional combustion engine because of the abolition of free parking, which they will continue to drive into the centre of Prague, especially in the case of older models, contributing to further air and noise pollution in the streets. Although the size of the electric car is similar to that of fossil fuel cars, the original proposal was certainly not motivated by the size of the electric car and with the extremely low number of electric cars so far, there is no reduction in existing parking spaces across the board. Thus, the Prague City Council’s contemplated move not only goes against the development of electromobility, but also against clean air in the metropolis.
There are 6.5 million registered cars in the Czech Republic, of which electric cars make up a negligible proportion. Just to give you an idea, last year, electric cars accounted for only 2.03% of total new car registrations, and in 2021 it will be only 1.28%. Of the roughly 16 000 electric cars registered in the Czech Republic, there are hundreds of them in Prague, at most in the low thousands. Overall, there are around one million passenger cars in the capital. This shows that no overcrowding of Prague with discounted electric cars is imminent in the coming years and the abolition of free parking for these lower numbers of electric cars has no chance of changing the parking situation in the capital.
While a gradual reduction of the benefits for clean vehicles over time is conceivable, experience in countries with a significantly higher share of electric vehicles confirms that such steps are only taken where clean mobility has already achieved significant development. However, this is certainly not the case in Prague, or the Czech Republic for that matter. In some locations around the historic centre of Prague, the effort to reduce traffic altogether may be understandable, but the blanket abolition of free parking for electric cars goes against current trends and efforts to make large cities as clean as possible thanks to electric cars.
Uncoordinated measures do not only threaten the development of locally emission-free and quiet transport in the context of reduced sales of new cars, but also in terms of further expansion of charging station infrastructure. Although Deputy Mayor Zdeněk Hřib states that Prague continues to support the development of electromobility through the construction of public slow and fast charging infrastructure, further expansion of the network will be economically unattractive for charging station operators and providers, given the small number of electric cars. In this respect, we see other issues to be addressed, such as the issue of dedicated parking spaces at charging stations so that they are actually available and not blocked by fossil fuel cars.
Therefore, the Association representing the automotive and electric vehicle industry firmly believes that this is only one of the considerations that will be subjected to careful analysis and consideration of all its implications so that the final decision does not become a hindrance on the road to cleaner air in Prague and further development of electromobility in the Czech Republic. The associations behind this challenge are open to discussions with the Prague City Council on this topic.
