Karamanlis: E-mobility a key pillar of transport development in Greece

Infrastructure and Transport Minister Costas Karamanlis said that e-mobility was a key pillar of transport development in Greece at the 5th Ecomobility Conference held on Thursday.

The first axis of transport ministry planning is the renewal of the aging fleet of cars in Greece at all levels: private cars, taxis and public transport.

Karamanlis announced that "especially for taxis, we are preparing a second round of financial support, the launch of a new 'Green Taxi' programme, which is part of the Recovery Fund and finances the replacement of old polluting taxis with electric ones."

"And the total subsidy for taxis can exceed 20,000 euros, which is a very, very important subsidy," he said, adding: "At the same time, a plan is being examined for the installation of charging infrastructure."

The minister noted that the incentives already been given for the purchase or lease of electric cars have brought results: In 2021 6,967 electric cars were registered, up from just 480 in 2019.

The market share, from 0.4 pct in 2019 jumped to almost 7 pct.

"Today, according to official EU data, Greece is the EU country with the highest rate of change in the electric vehicle market," he said.

The second pillar of the ministry's plan for e-mobility - and equally important - is the infrastructure for easy charging.

An issue that, as Karamanlis pointed out, concerns other European countries as well.

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At the same time, offers in a book-building process launched by Greek authorities to issue a 10-year bond loan exceeded 11 billion euros within the first few hours of the process, with the interest rate of the issue falling from 1.89% to 1.83%, sources said.

Greece’s Public Debt Management Authority plans to issue new bonds worth at least 12 billion euros this year, down from 14 billion in 2021, in a move aimed to highlight that Greece is able to borrow at competitive terms.

Economists expect that Greece will seek to raise as much capital as possible in the first quarter of the year before the termination of the PEPP programme by the European Central Bank.

READ MORE: Mitsotakis announces Co-Lab for digital and green transformation of tourism industry.

The Greek state budget revenue exceeded targets in 2021, totaling 59.24 billion euros, up 2.1% from targets, while budget spending was down by 420 million euros compared with 2020, the finance ministry said on Monday.

In a report on provisional budget execution data, the ministry said that tax revenue was 47.602 billion euros, up 1.6% from targets and noted that the final result will be much higher since payment of car registration fees was given a two-month extension.

The ministry said that a crucial year like 2021 with a high fiscal cost because of budget spending to deal with the pandemic, the primary result showed a deficit of 10.985 billion euros.

This is down from a budget target for a primary deficit of 12.946 billion and a primary deficit of 18.195 billion in 2020.

READ MORE: Greece approves 2.8 GW of renewable energy projects.