MAPNA plans to set up electric vehicle charging stations in all Iranian provinces by the fiscal yearend [March 2021], as an infrastructure for promoting zero emission vehicles in the country.
According to Abbas Aliabadi, the head of MAPNA, Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi Province is the second city to house an electric charging station following the pioneering Tehran, Tasnim News Agency reported.
The project in Mashhad is expected to conclude in two weeks, he added.
Aliabadi said the technology of producing electric vehicles is being taught in world universities for over 30 years now.
“If the domestic auto production sector does not show enthusiasm for the field, MAPNA will definitely put its potential into practice and start making EVs,” he said.
The MAPNA chief expressed his company's readiness to collaborate with car manufacturers and Tehran Taxi Organization to upgrade the country’s transport system with the help of EV technology.
“It is high time to invest in EVs," he added, urging local carmakers to pay more attention to EVs.
Adding that the group has already started working on EV technology, Aliabadi said, “MAPNA has been working to bridge the technological gap, especially concerning the capacity of car batteries. Fortunately, noticeable progress has been made, but still more investment should be made in producing batteries.”
Last year in September, the domestic carmaker Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) expressed interest in utilizing the potentials of Iranian tech firms and knowledge-based companies to develop electric vehicles.
IKCO CEO Farshad Moqimi discussed the potentials of local tech firms for designing EVs in cooperation with with the Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari.
Moqimi said IKCO is keen on backing knowledge-based companies active in automotive industries.
The Only Measure So Far
As the first move in paving the way for the presence of electric cars in the country, Iran’s first electric vehicle charging station was set up at Tehran’s Milad Tower in May 2019 by MAPNA.
Built over 700 square meters, the station includes a 43-kilovolt alternating current charger, plus a fast charger working under the Chademo Protocol, a trade name of a quick charging method for electric vehicles, which suits Japanese and South Korean EVs such as Kia, Nissan and Mitsubishi.
The station also includes a 4.7-kv slow charger and a 5.5-kv charger that can be used by electric motorcycles, according to Aliabadi.
"Depending on battery size, it takes 10 minutes to charge a vehicle on average, for which motorists pay 7 cents," he said last May, noting that once fully charged, a car can cruise for 100 kilometers.
Iran Left Far Behind
Developing EVs and replacing fossil fuel-powered cars with vehicles running on clean energy have been high on carmakers’ agenda around the globe, with leading carmakers investing billions in R&D and governments offering incentives for promoting the production and sale of such cars.
In addition to common global challenges facing EV markets, i.e. the need to develop diverse technologies in power equipment, electric motors, control systems and batteries, Iranian officials and automakers have had little real interest in rapid changes in the saturated global auto industry in which there are more sellers than buyers.
According to Jean Christophe Quemard, the executive vice president of PSA Group, a French multinational manufacturer of automobiles sold under the Peugeot, Citroen and Opel brands, while the global automotive industry is undergoing profound changes, it seems that car companies and auto policymakers in Tehran are stuck in the past as they have interest neither in autonomous cars nor in electric vehicles.
Quemard is of the opinion that the changes will eventually reach Iran, but “I do not know when.”
Regarding the worsening air pollution in almost all major Iranian cities, he said, “The country’s transportation fleet needs renovation.”
Demand for clean energy is gradually gaining traction both in the developed and developing world. Besides shifting to eco-friendly fuel and renewable energy, nations are long in the process of keeping their roads clean by reducing the number of fossil-fuel vehicles.
Countries leading the campaign for clean energy are China, Germany, the UK, Norway and France.
