Moldova presents fuel economy trends analysis and sets course for electric vehicles

July 17, 2018 by Global Fuel Economy Initiative

Categories: Fuel Efficiency, Eastern Europe and Caucuses, In-country Tags: Electric Vehicles

Moldova Gaseline: New vs. Used Vehicle Imports.

Moldova GFEI Baseline: Vehicle Age at Import.

Moldova GFEI Baseline: Fuel Type.

With support from the Global Fuel Economy Initiative and UN Environment, Moldova has systematically gathered data on over 200,000 imported cars to create the first-ever picture of the country’s light duty vehicle energy efficiency trajectory and to develop scenarios for future policy and fiscal incentives.

Member of Parliament Mr. Vladimir Cernat spoke at the GFEI launch event on 10th July 2018 in Chisinau. He highlighted the importance of the study as Moldova prepares to strengthen its incentives for electric vehicles with an additional exemption from circulation/road tax for EVs from 2018. Electric vehicles (including motorcycles) are already exempt from registration tax since 2017, with taxation for hybrids at 50% to that of conventional vehicles.

The Carbon Finance Unit, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment of the Republic of Moldova, have published the first results of an in-depth study of the country’s vehicle imports spanning 2005 – 2017. The baseline study shows that Moldova imports vehicles from Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Russia. There is currently a registration tax differentiation between new and used cars, but there is no circulation tax differentiation.

Preliminary findings from Moldova’s auto fuel economy baseline include:

• Predominance of used vehicles (~80%) in new vehicle registrations; the majority of vehicles imported are between 5-10 years of age
  
  
• Average auto fuel economy improved from 8.3 Lge/100km in 2005 to 6.0 Lge/100km in 2017, an increase of almost 28%. Moldova’s year-on-year rate of improvement is around 2%, close to the 2.4% annual improvement needed to reach the GFEI goal of a doubling of the world’s fleet fuel economy by 2050
  
  
• Hybrid electric vehicle purchases have shot up from almost zero in 2011 to 2,900 registered in 2017 with new 50% excise exemption
  
  
• A preference for small/medium cars(1000- 1500 cc) as percentage of total imports
  
  
• A marked trend toward dieselization, as of 2017 2/3 of liquid fuel imports are diesel and diesel vehicle imports grew from 25% of (new and used) imports in 2005 to 58% in 2017.