In 2021, Kyrgyzstan, as part of the Paris Agreement, submitted an updated nationally determined contribution – NDC. According to the plan, the country committed itself to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by 16.63 per cent by 2025, and by 15.97 per cent, including motor vehicle emissions. Among the measures suggested is popularisation and transition to electric vehicles being a low-carbon transport.

National authorities have taken a few legislative measures to support the initiative. Among the first steps is the extension of the duty-free import of electric vehicles until 2025. The second one is the introduction of special green number plates for the owners of electric vehicles and granting of special privileges, namely: reduction of vehicle registration cost, tax preferences, special rules for paid municipal parking facilities.

According to Iskender Sharsheyev, representative of the Union of ElectricVehicle Users ‘Eltrans’, there is a growing interest in the green transport on the electric vehicle market of Kyrgyzstan. The main countries suppliers of electric vehicles to Kyrgyzstan are China, Japan and some European countries. China is a highly competitive supplier with competitive prices and a variety of models.

“The country is starting to develop the infrastructure, including installation of charging stations in large cities,” said Iskender Sharsheyev.

According to the representative of the Union, there is a prospect for popularisation of electric vehicles among Kyrgyzstanis. The key factors contributing to it are state support, including tax benefits and subsidies for a purchase of electric vehicles, as well as the development of the charging station infrastructure.

Raising awareness of such benefits of electric vehicles as cost effectiveness and eco-friendliness can also stimulate the demand. A cut in electric vehicle prices and their maintenance combined with the rise in fuel prices for conventional vehicles may contribute to the increase in electric vehicle demand.

“Today, you pay zero customs duties and zero taxes when you purchase and own an electric vehicle. They will try to introduce a vehicle scrappage fee, but it will be a mistake,” Sharsheyev said.

So far, Kyrgyzstan is only importing electric vehicles. The case of manufacturing of low-carbon vehicles has not been implemented yet. Nevertheless, this initiative is in the plan. Thus, at the end of February, S. Japarov broke ground on the new automotive manufacturing plant, which would also manufacture electric vehicles. The volume of first-stage investments is 115 million dollars, the project will be implemented by a Chinese company ‘China Hubei Zhuoyue Group’. According to preliminary information, the production will be launched by the end of the year.

Electric vehicles are more energy efficient than conventional vehicles

According to I. Sharsheyev, transition to electric vehicles may significantly reduce the level of air pollution in towns, as they do not emit exhaust gases.

“It helps to reduce the amount of harmful substances such as nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide. Electric vehicles are more energy efficient than conventional vehicles, their efficiency equals to 98-99 per cent, not a drop of energy is wasted, which also contributes to reduction of total power consumption,” said Iskender Shersheyev.

However, the environmental efficiency of electric vehicles largely depends on the source of electric power. If it is generated by means of renewable energy sources, the environmental impact increases significantly. Otherwise, if electric power is generated at coal-fired or gas-fired power plants, the ecological footprint of electric vehicles can also be significant.

“Emissions are equal to zero if renewable energy sources are used. Compared to them, petrol vehicles emit 55.44 tonnes of CO2 (nearly 28,000 cubic metres), 30 kilogrammes of NOx, 15 kilogrammes of hydrocarbons during the lifetime of the vehicle, i.e. 20 years,” said Sharsheyev.

Economist Marat Musuraliev shared his opinion with CABAR.asia about the initiative of popularisation of electric vehicles as low-carbon vehicles. He emphasised the following advantages of the green transport:

? No noxious emissions into the environment during operation.

? High efficiency of electric motors (about 90 per cent unlike internal combustion engines with the average efficiency of 25-28 per cent).? Much less noise.? Fewer restrictions during parking in indoor parking spaces.However, in addition to pros, the expert specified some cons:

? Toxicity of manufacturing of energy storage units (batteries, either lithium-ion, iron phosphate, or other batteries).

? Limited lifetime from 8 to 15 years.? Toxicity during scrappage.? Narrow range of operating temperatures, which causes the need for heat insulation of storage units, up to 20 per cent rise in the cost of cooling them in summer, and up to 25 per cent rise in the cost of warming them in winter, which reduce the autonomy of vehicles.? The loss of the real storage capacity within the first years of operation.

Kyrgyzstan has no battery recycling technology

According to eco-activist Vlad Ushakov, electric vehicles is more about business than ecology because electric vehicles often have more load than conventional vehicles.

“Besides, Kyrgyzstan does not have a proper battery recycling system. Watch battery recycling is environmentally unfriendly, and batteries are simply thrown away and go into the environment and cause much damage,” said Vlad Ushakov.

According to him, Bishkek has been on top list of cities with the dirtiest air in recent decades because “96 per cent of transport here is older than 15 years old.”

“Such cars had been driven a lot abroad and then they were brought to our country to avoid scrappage. Thus, we have poisoned the air these years and now there will an extra burden because of electric vehicles because we do not have a proper battery recycling system. So, a relevant infrastructure needs to be created before making the initiative,” he said.

The eco activist cited the initiative of the mayor’s office to replace trolley buses with electric buses as an example.

According to economist M. Musuraliev, this decision is dubious.

For example, trolley bus wires were dismantled in the southern part of Bishkek during road paving works on Sovetskaya/Baitik Batyr Street on a pretext that trolley buses needed to be replaced with buses. So, one electric means of transport (trolley buses) will be replaced by another one (electric buses).

“But it will cause the need to recycle electric energy storage units, while no EIA (environmental impact assessment) has probably been performed. Therefore, we have no recycling technologies, or estimation of their consequences,” the economist said.

Will the country fail to sustain over 800 thousand electric vehicles?

According to economist Marat Musuraliev, there is one serious risk posed by the popularisation of electric vehicles in Kyrgyzstan – Kyrgyzstan has been experiencing shortages of electricity since 2020.

According to the economist, the domestic electric power consumption in 2023 was 17.2 billion kilowatt-hours, by estimate, while domestic production was only about 14.7 billion kilowatt-hours. So, the republic has to import about 2.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electric power from abroad.

“Moreover, the rise in the proportion of electric vehicles causes further expansion in electricity consumption, and increase in its shortage, respectively. Anyway, we consume 17 per cent more than we produce,” Musuraliev said.

According to I.Sharsheyev, Kyrgyzstan may face several problems when transitioning to green transport. The expert called the following problems:

However, there have been messages of battery recovery technologies and doubling the battery life.“If the country imports 100 thousand electric vehicles, the country will stand it. If it imports over 820 thousand electric vehicles, we will need 2 billion kilowatt-hours more per year, and the main consumption will be in winter. Moreover, we will save about 3 billion dollars per year if we stop paying for the fuel as a country. It equals our volume of negative trading balance,” Sharsheyev said.

Alternative of electric vehicles in the Kyrgyz Republic – hybrid vehicles

According to economist Marat Musuraliev, given the shortage of electricity in Kyrgyzstan, hybrid vehicles may become the most efficient solution to a problem of emission abatement in the environment from motor transport.

The advantage of hybrid vehicles is that they may be fuelled with regular gasoline as well.

“But during deceleration they, just like electric vehicles, convert the kinetic energy into electric one and store it in the battery. In other words, recovery occurs when energy is not lost during braking, but is captured into batteries and reused during acceleration. There are plug-in hybrid cars that can be either fuelled by gasoline or charged using a wall outlet,” said Marat Musuraliev.

In general, the expert suggests the following set of measures to solve the issue of exhaust gases:

? Mutual approval of abatement in customs duties on small cars with internal combustion engines and hybrid vehicles at the level of the Eurasian Economic Commission.

? Reduction in domestic taxes on small cars with internal combustion engines and hybrid vehicles.? Reduction in ecological duties on vehicles with small engines with capacity up to 1.5 litres.? Establishment of a privileged access to the urban centre and parking spaces for mini cars with internal combustion engines and small sizes (length-width) and for hybrid vehicles.“In Japan, kei car owners have very low taxes and parking privileges, so 38 per cent of Japanese already replaced their large and medium cars with such mini cars. They require little room; their small-volume engines emit fewer harmful substances into the atmosphere, and they help the city to avoid the problem of traffic jams and parking,” said Marat Musuraliev.