UMNE and MASA: For Tourist and Ecological State of Montenegro Development of E-Mobility is Crucial
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Montenegro, as a tourist destination and ecological country according to the Constitution, would have multiple benefits from progressive development of e-mobility and the use of electric vehicles in traffic, including economic profit, environmental protection and citizens health. This was concluded at a round table organized on this topic by the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Montenegro.
"Every country, and I guess Montenegro as well, endeavors to increase its energy self-reliance as much as possible, i.e. to import as less energy as possible, and to produce as much energy as possible independently," the MASA academician and professor of Natural Sciences Faculty UMNE, Predrag Miranovic, PhD, said.
"Montenegro is not a producer of oil and gas, and we as a country spend huge amounts of money on the import of oil and oil derivatives, but that is why Montenegro is a producer of electricity." "Unfortunately, Montenegro has not yet fully utilized all its hydro, solar and wind potentials," Miranović believes. He reminded that last year the European Commission adopted a Strategy that predicts that by 2050 there will be no cars on EU soil that emit harmful gases. Also, the EC made a decision based on which after 2035, it will not be possible to sell new cars with a typical diesel drive within the EU. All the big car companies, he adds, have made decision to abort production of typical vehicles and to switch to electric ones.
"We are moving towards the EU and we are not at all aware of the tectonic changes that are happening in the auto industry, which are waiting for us around the corner and the standards that we have to meet," Miranović said. He said that this topic should be more prominent in the public debate because it is not only an environmental issue, but a life issue. Neven Duić, PhD, from the University of Zagreb said that a frequent question that is asked in the Balkans and in Croatia, which has 3% of the market for e-vehicles, is "What will it do to us, its expensive, we buy old vehicles from Germany anyway, and then we drive them for 15 to 20 years?” "However, what will happen in five years in Germany - second-hand cars will be electric and then the wave will certainly come to us as well," Duić says. Montenegro, which is a tourist country like Croatia, he believes, must be ready for tourists who come with electric cars, and they are the ones who bring economic profit, so electric charging has its justification in months of increased tourist visits and if the population itself currently doesn’t have that many cars. At the meeting, he presented the electrical infrastructure in Croatian traffic and pointed out the potential for the development of e-mobility based on use of solar and wind energy.Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the UMNE, Radoje Vujadinović, PhD, presented current e-mobility infrastructure in Montenegro. According to Monstat data from 2021, there are 323 e-vehicles in Montenegro, with a growth trend compared to previous period, and more than 60 charging locations. First of them is located in the e-mobility laboratory of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the UMNE, which recognized its role in promotion and education of transport electrification in Montenegro. In addition to preserving the environment and economic profit, he pointed out that the electrification of traffic also opens numerous new opportunities for employment. "It is indisputable that Montenegro will enter the process of electrification and it is very important that we do not meet that process unprepared," Dean Vujadinović said. Dr. Zoran Miljanić from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, UMNE, also spoke at the round table on the topic of infrastructure planning for charging electric vehicles. Experiences from Serbia in e-mobility in the public transport system were shared by Slobodan Mišanović, PhD, from PUK GSP Belgrade. Vladimir Dzodzo, EPSEE Group Belgrade, spoke on the subject of regional initiative in development of e-mobility infrastructure, results and perspectives.