Cyprus is moving forward with its green agenda by promoting electric vehicles and charging infrastructure to build sustainable cities, said the Minister of Transport Yiannis Karousos.
He unveiled a new free electric vehicle charging point in the heart of the capital, an initiative of the Pilakoutas Group and Troodos Electric Cables with the support of Nicosia Municipality.
The public e-point charging station — at the junction of Stasandrou and Ayias Eleni street––is a rare sight in Cyprus, which has among the fewest in Europe.
Karousos said his ministry attaches great importance to the construction of such projects, as they aim to reach the Republic’s EU targets to reduce emissions of pollutants in transport by 55% in 2030.
He argued that weaning transport from fossil fuels is one of the ministry’s biggest challenges, with the first objective being the substantial development of electrification on the island.
The Minister said that promoting electromobility is high on the agenda and includes incentive schemes for buying electric cars and installing charging points financed by the EU Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The Mayor of Nicosia, Constantinos Yiorkadjis, said: “We need to minimise the city’s ecological footprint by reducing pollution from cars and facilitating access to other environmentally friendly forms of transport. Electric vehicles are a step in that direction.”
The Head of Business Strategy of the Charalambos Pilakoutas group, Stalo Pilakouta, said the goal is the implementation of the e-points Cyprus initiative.
That is to supply and install a network of e-point electric chargers throughout Cyprus, taking over all the costs of the equipment and its installation.
“A feature of this action is the cooperation with local government agencies and organisations that multiply the impact of this effort.”
Cyprus’ Transport Ministry has recently launched the second phase of the incentive scheme to promote electric vehicles with a €10 mln budget to offer 2,518 grants.
Interested parties have until 9 March, 11 am, to submit their application.
The grants start at €10,000 for new electric vehicles, while the funding for scrapping old cars amounts to €7,500, with a total budget of €10.16 mln.
The grant for a used electric car is set at €5,000.
The ministry is also running a separate €3.7 mln scheme for installing 1,000 electric vehicle charging stations until the end of April 2023.
Approved by the Cabinet in November, the scheme is implemented in two phases, with grants for 500 charging stations issued each round.
The first phase has a budget of €1.8m.
The second phase will be announced near the end of 2023, with the remaining €1.9 mln.
