Our country is among the 28 EU member states that have registered growth in the sale of hybrid cars, according to data from Eurostat and the Association of Automobile Manufacturers Association (ASEA) for 2018.

Last year, around 2100 vehicles with an alternative propulsion were sold in Bulgaria, with 1,300 units sold in 2017, an increase of nearly 60%, according to ASEA statistics. Overall, around 2 million cars classified as electric cars or hybrid electric cars have been sold in the EU, which can be propelled in combination with a gasoline or diesel engine plus electricity.

In our country, about 800 electric cars and over 2000 hybrids are moving. At the moment in the market in Bulgaria, 18 different brands offer alternative propulsion vehicles, ranging from BGN 60 000 to BGN 80 000. According to experts in the industry, besides the high price, one of the main brakes for the development of this "transport of the future" in our country is the lack of enough charging stations for the electric cars and the hybrid versions as well as a number of other bonuses and discounts offered in the developed European countries to owners of electric vehicles.

According to experts, Bulgaria is lagging behind the leading European countries in the active development of the electricity distribution infrastructure, which should ensure the construction of a national network of power stations with sufficient power. This will require targeted investments in electricity distribution grids for at least 5-7 years for the minimum deployment of high-power charging stations in the country.

One of the few advantages that owners of hybrid cars use in Bulgaria is their exemption from the municipal tax on vehicles, as well as the free parking in the big cities.

Last year, 262 million vehicles were registered in the EU Member States. About 2 million or less than 1% of them are classified as electric cars or hybrid electric cars that can be propelled in combination with a gasoline or diesel engine. Overall, about 58% of cars sold in the EU were powered by gasoline, another 36% were diesel and the rest were electric or hybrid cars, statistics show.

According to the latest ASEA data, the highest share in the sale of electric and hybrid cars is registered in the two Baltic Republics of Lithuania and Latvia. In Lithuania, growth is 225% or 767 sold alternative vehicles in 2017, compared to 2494 in the year. In Latvia, the growth is 102% - 408 hybrid cars sold in 2017, compared with 824 in the year.
A significant increase in the sale of cars with alternative propulsion is also recorded in two of our neighbors - in Romania the growth is almost 80% - or 3237 hybrids sold in 2017 - at 5809 in the year. In our southern neighbor, Greece's sales of hybrids are over 70% - or 2906 cars sold in 2017, compared to 4980 in the year.
 
Other countries in the EU with a rapid shift to alternative vehicles are Norway, Sweden, Poland, Finland, the United Kingdom and Luxembourg, where, besides financial benefits for their owners, there are also enough electric charging stations.

It is expected that there will be a network of at least 800,000 charging stations in the EU in 2020, with a current volume of around 20,000, with an estimated 10 billion euro to be invested in European networks to charge cars with electricity instead of diesel and gasoline.

Over the next 10 years, electric vehicles are expected to grow sharply in Europe - by 2030, the leading industrial countries in Europe and the world will end domestic sales of carbon-fueled cars and the number of traditional vehicles in operation will quickly decline. The massive introduction of electric vehicles into the European Union, which will begin over the next 5 years, will lead to a drastic decline in transport and construction and will trigger new technologies, industries and professions, according to analysts' reports.

According to them, EU Member States that fail to keep pace with new technologies and their information and infrastructure provision will suffer considerable trade losses and will be subject to sanctions both because of the use of gasoline and diesel transport and because of insufficient capacity of national charging stations.

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