RETROFIT National Decree

By project EV Energy

Published on 16 December 2018

Italy

Lazio

Andrea Vignoli

EU Project Manager

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About this good practice

The EVs have achieved remarkable technical performance and autonomy, but they are still too expensive, even impossible to buy for many people. RETROFIT is a pragmatic Italian legislation addressed to open a new market, focused on converting conventional vehicles with combustion engines into retrofitted electric cars, efficient, zero emissions and zero fuel consumption.
The novelty of this legislation and its advantages consist in encouraging and accelerating the process of reducing CO2 emissions in the national territory, converting vehicles with combustion engines into EVs, in line with the Rules of the road and the following Regulations UN10, UN85, UN100 e UN101 of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
http://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2016/01/11/15G00232/sg
The advantages of the RETROFIT regulation are: a) exemption of road tax for five years; b) 50% of reduction on the price of the insurance policy; c) access free to the Limited Traffic Zones.
Stakeholders and beneficiaries of the practice are people that cannot afford to buy a new EV and wishing to convert their conventional vehicles into EVs; craftsmen and SME’s of car-repair sectors; specialized automobile repair shops.

Resources needed

The EV conversion costs approximately vary from 5,000 to 20,000 Euros, depending on the vehicle type, comprehensive of: cost of work (dismantling of the petrol or diesel engine, radiator, exhaust pipes and cooling and replacing them with electric motor, rechargeable batteries, network interface.

Evidence of success

An effective demonstration of the application of the aforementioned Legislation was the Reborn project presented in June 2016, arisen from the initiative of the Crafts Confederation of Treviso and Vicenza, and through a network of small businesses of car-repair sectors - electromechanical - engineering industry, aimed at the development of a network of specialized automobile repair shops in the activity of transformation to EVs. Since that there are many authorized centers to offer this service.

Potential for learning or transfer

National, regional and local policies are too often an insurmountable barrier to the development of new technological systems. Together with excessive bureaucracy, these policies are often a higher barrier to the lack of needed funds to the implementation of new infrastructures and technologies, as they demotivate private investors to act towards the innovation and not to take advantage of possible opportunities for the use of public resources.
Therefore, the modernization of the existing regulatory framework is a fundamental step to be carried out as quickly as possible to encourage public and private investments in the field of sustainable mobility.
In addition to the work vehicles, the oldest vehicles or anyway the vehicles from the very low value seem to be the most attractive for this market, because with a few thousand euro new life to cars maybe destined for scrapping is given.