Vesic: Serbia to adapt to transformation of automotive industry

BELGRADE - The Serbian Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure and Serbia as a state will work on creating conditions to keep up the intensive, historic changes in the automotive industry, such as vehicle electrification, Minister Goran Vesic said on Tuesday at the opening of the 55th Belgrade Car Show and the 15th Motopassion motorcycle show.

"We will continue the disbursement of subsidies for purchases of electric cars, and from January 1 next year, we will launch the deregistration process. We have secured 100 mln euros for 140,000 cars whose deregistration will be possible. Those are cars with EURO1, EURO2 and EURO3 engines, and their owners will then be able to buy EURO6 engine cars not older than eight years," Vesic said.

He said his ministry planned to install around a hundred new charging stations for electric cars along motorways and expressways, and added that, under amendments to the Law on Planning and Construction, electric chargers would be installed at buildings in the future.

"Besides, we will introduce the obligation for all petrol stations to have a certain number of chargers for electric cars. We have started building smart motorways, the first such being the Morava Corridor, whose first section will be opened to traffic as early at the end of March or the beginning of April, and we will continue to invest and promote electric mobility," Vesic noted.