The electric car gives us a thrill in two ways. Not bad when we step aboard and a mighty acceleration lulls us with just the faint whisper of rolling tires. It will be like this for long, silent and clean journeys, it promises a future to come. Today the bill for so much delight arrives rather quickly: 400 kilometers or so, if our electron car is one of the more expensive and refined ones, 150 kilometers or even less if we are satisfied with a "basic" model, perhaps a delicious Smart of the latest generation that has the advantage of confessing its only city vocation since its birth.
What the tank of our old fuel car promises is still a dream today. There forced recharge he calls us to appeal much, much earlier. It wouldn't be such a big deal if we only used our electron car in town. If we had the charging socket in the garage or in the courtyard. If we never needed the car to travel. If to travel we had an ultra-fast column everywhere every 10 or 20 kilometres. And above all if technology allowed us to fill up with electrons in times that are not comparable to that of a traditional refueling but at least coinciding with a coffee and a sandwich. Tomorrow, let's say in at least a decade according to the indications of the experts, all this might not be a problem. Today, yes.
The brave ones of the electric car have all their good reasons for going ahead: the conspicuous ones public incentives, the environmental vocation that many of us admirably harbor perhaps, oiled by certainly captivating performances and by the more prosaic advantages on free movement in many of the large urban centers that increasingly block the way for fuel-powered cars. The many problems? We are racing to solve them, amid promises of speed, in technology and infrastructure, in a scenario that legitimizes hopes but also some dutiful doubts, which focuses on the first and most visible critical side: that of infrastructure charging.
The market presses
That the electric car is beginning to enjoy growing favor is beyond question. The global car market, thanks to the pandemic, continues to slow down compared to the volumes of previous years. But compared to the 110.000 total registrations last July (20% less than in July 2020, which had already recorded a heavy decline compared to the pre-pandemic market) there were 11.500 new electric cars, exceeding the share of 10,3% of sales, with a slight prevalence of plug-in hybrids compared to fully electric ones. And so today in Italy we have over 170.000 green cars, just over half of which are totally electric. Not bad, and in any case enough to undermine or at least highlight the conundrum of a recharging infrastructure that not only struggles to keep its promises but runs the risk of not even meeting the needs of today's electric fleet.
The problems are there for all to see: the number and distribution of the charging stations, undermined by the very bad habit of the Italians of occupying the reserved spaces with "normal" cars. At the end of June we had around 23.300 charging points in our country in less than 9.500 locations, with only 1% of ultra-fast structures, those that guarantee at least 80% of "full" capacity in half an hour. Certain it doesn't seem impossible to achieve the goal to equip the country with at least 100.000 columns by 2030, drawn up several times by our rulers with important resources (750 million euros are directly dedicated by the Pnrr alone). But even here some calculations may not add up if what they predict safely about electric mode is true: already in 2027 electric cars will cost less than fuel-powered ones (it is worth remembering that in terms of material and manufacturing content, the electric motor is simpler and theoretically cheaper than a comparable combustion engine and that its price is mainly a matter of economies of scale). More could be needed, much more, if the forecasts of an electric car fleet which at the end of the decade could well exceed 5 million units were to materialize.
Model to be defined
Furthermore, it must be considered that today the number of Italian columns is distributed in an erratic manner, with a concentration in some large urban centers (Rome, Milan) but with an absolute shortage in the extra-urban high-speed roads and even in the motorways, where only in recent weeks the first columns are being built after a long dribble between the bureaucracy and the concessionaires. According to which operating model? Much, indeed almost everything, is still to be defined. We are, it is true, in one pioneering stage which has already given some encouraging results thanks to the network of agreements involving practically all the electricity companies, all the former municipal companies together with the large energy suppliers and which has produced an initial proliferation of columns also installed by local administrations.
As is natural, but not obvious, the lion's share and the promotion of all this is in the willing action of our former monopolist Enel through Enel X. Through the app Juicepass Enel guarantees access to almost 200.000 charging points worldwide (90.000 in Europe) dedicating a chapter of the 2021-2023 strategic plan to Italy, which plans to reach as many as 780.000 charging points between public and private worldwide with 21.000 charging points public by 2023 only in our country, favoring ultra-fast structures, thus trying to maximize the advantages of the countless applications offered by the main brands that sell electric cars but also by infrastructure managers to guide the motorist with electrons in the task of recharging.
An indispensable aid is that of the telematic help for top-ups. But managed in a still uneven way not only in terms of distribution on the territory but also in the connotation and in the great strategic choices that need to be piloted by the institutions in some way. Two examples: it is advisable to favor the model of replacing the electric recharging systems with the old fuel distribution systems which are perhaps closing down to rationalize the network, or that of more parceled out recharging, promoting installations in condominiums, shopping centres, car parks offices, in meeting areas? It will probably be convenient to draw a mix between the two models which however guarantees the correct balance on the territory by monitoring the evolution of needs.
The cost node
A big problem to solve is that of the actual costs of recharging our electric car. As many detailed analyzes have highlighted, the only truly convenient (or at least the most convenient) way to recharge our electric vehicle is to connect it directly to our normal home electrical network or alternatively to a private column that we would have had installed. However, recharging the car at the public charging point costs more, even much more. Too much, in some cases, so much nullify any convenience.
Align the public columns, even the fast ones, the domestic cost therefore not exceeding 20 or 25 euro cents per kilowatt hour, as indeed envisaged by the "Refreshment Decree" passed by the former Conte government? Or take the 40 cents per kWh as a reference as a balanced price to remunerate the large investments necessary for the development of the grid? The fact is that today for a column outside our condominium you pay from 37 cents for facilitated recharges on the Tesla network up to 50 cents and more for fast charging to almost 80 cents per kWh for certain ultra-fast columns, this case the advantage of many electric cars compared to similar fuel models. Perhaps we could start right here to solve the rebus of the columns.
