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🚗 Greece’s electric car moment?
Even as recently as five years ago, electric cars were a rare sight in Greece.
Hybrids were semi-popular, but fully powered electric vehicles were few and far in between. After all, Greece was severely lacking the infrastructure to support them.
Recently, something has changed. Everywhere you look, there’s another electric car.
Have you been amazed by the number of times you’ve seen a new electric vehicle in Greece over the past year?
You are not alone. In November, I made the following observation.
Today, you are as likely to see a Tesla in the rich suburb of Glyfada in Southern Athens as you are to see one parked at the once infamous anarchist den of Exarcheia, or even in the dusty single road of the small island of Ano Koufonisi — all examples based on true sightings over the past year.
This made me curious, so I decided to look more into the data.
Electric Vehicle sales in Greece are skyrocketing
The number of pure electric cars in Greece is soaring.
In total, 6,379 new Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) were registered in 2023, according to the Greek Association of Motor Vehicle Importers Representatives (AMVIR).
This is an astonishing number. More BEVs were sold in Greece in the last year (6,379) than in the previous four years combined (5,872).
The streets of Athens are now full of Teslas. White, blue, red — even yellow.
You guessed that right. Greece is now also home to about 30 Tesla taxis.
There is even a service to tour Athens and experience the city “in unique comfort”.
But it is not just Teslas. New Chinese models that are cheaper and more optimal for intra-city travel have also started showing up. And so have other BEVs from traditional automakers now increasing their electric footprint in Greece.
Here are the top 10 best sold BEV models in Greece, by percentage:
Charging Stations popping up all over Greece
The rise of electric cars is also accompanied with the rapid increase of EV charging stations across the country. Blink, nrg incharge, DEI Blue and others are setting up new charging points faster than you can type “electric vehicle”.
In 2018, there were less than 50 official charging points in the whole of Greece.
At end 2023, there were about 5,000 of them — 100 times as many as just 5 years ago. That number is expected to increase to 13,000 by 2025 and to over 100,000 by 2030.
Everyone is joining the game — supermarkets, ports, parking areas, hotels, dedicated municipal charging stations. We now have charging stations at Marina Zeas, MyMarket and even the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), which will be home to the largest EV charging station in Greece with 50 chargers.
The rise of EV charging stations has been so dramatic that the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator (HEDNO) announced that only 6% of all EV charging points have been officially registered in the country so far and threatened to cut the power to all those who do not register soon.
Why did EVs become so popular in Greece?
In line with the US and other European countries, Greece launched a series of incentives and legislation that aimed to increase uptake of alternative-fuel-based vehicles and infrastructure:
Registration tax benefits (from 50% for hybrids to 100% for BEVs)
Ownership tax benefits (exemption from circulation tax)
Company tax benefits (exempt from benefit-in-kind tax)
Purchase subsidies (€2,000 to €6,000 for individuals and up to €15,000 for taxis)
VAT and individual tax Benefits (13% instead of 24% for purchases)
Home charging stations subsidies (€600 for single-units, €900 for multi-units)
Public charging stations subsidies (up to €40,000 per station) and tax exemption
You can read more about the latest legislation that are still in effect here.
Since 2020, the Greek government has invested almost €240M in financial aid to accelerate the e-mobility sector in Greece. Naturally, the biggest chunk of the subsidies went to electric cars and charging points.
The biggest subsidy program was Kinoumai Ilektrika (“I move electrically”), whose first segment run in 2020-2022 (€46M) and its second is still running until 2024 (€65M).
With €80M in subsidies, the program Fortizo Pantou (“I charge everywhere”) was a major catalyst in the increase of charging stations across the country.
“Green Taxi” (€40M) has been less effective as a program to help modernize Greece’s traditionally sclerotic taxi industry. In contrast, the e-Astypalaia initiative (€9M) that also utilized private sector support to make the small island of Astypalaia fully electric has been a greater success — both because of what it signals for the energy transition of Greece’s islands archipelago and as a top branding opportunity for the country.
What does this mean for Greece?
From a total fleet of 6.6M light duty vehicles, Greece has about 250K alternative fuels passenger cars today. Fully electric cars are a small but growing portion of that pool.
Policymakers should start paying more attention, especially in studies that map out the strategic implications of this new trend for the country (see here and here).
There are many obvious risks with BEVs (and some not so obvious), but this trend also presents significant opportunities.
What if Greece could do move to take advantage of this rising wave of electric?
While hard to believe, a fully electric car was once produced in Greece.
Owned by Greek shipping magnate Giannis Goulandris, Enfield Automotive gave birth to Enfield 8000, a 2-seater battery-electric city car. 120 cars were built in total during the 1970s — one even broke a record in 2015. Goulandris moved production of the Enfield 8000 to the Greek island of Syros, but the project was eventually scrapped.
Today, Athens is home to one of Tesla’s most important engineering offices. Located at Demokritos, Tesla’s R&D shop is a unique hotspot of global innovation that has contributed to major breakthroughs in EVs, robotics and automation (e.g. Optimus).
Tesla is definitely onto something tapping into the great talent of NTUA engineers.
I believe that we will see many more Greek-bred innovations in the space. And I am hopeful that more people will follow the footsteps of Kostis Laskaris (Director of Engineering at Tesla), Adam Markakis (former founder of Kineo and now Astylab) and George Kalligeros (former founder of PushMe, now VP Hardware at Tier).
Here’s to Greece’s electric car moment.
Let’s make it a good one!
💰 New funding rounds
Kinvent raises €16M to transform physiothеrapy. Athan Kollias’ startup has completed its 3rd round led by Eurazeo with participation by Greek-based Uni.Fund.
BlueLayer comes out of stealth, announces €9.3M in total funding. The startup co-founded by Alex Argyros is building a SaaS platform for carbon project developers.
Brite Solar raises €8.6M to improve solar glass technology. Series A round (led by NEP) will help the Thessaloniki-based startup create a new production line in Patras.
Circular Genomics raises €7.6M to advance circular RNA biomarkers. Company was co-founded by Kosmas Karadimitriou and Nikolaos Mellios.
Wondercraft raises €2.8M seed round to become 'Canva of audio'. Co-founded by Dimitris Nikolaou, the YC-backed startup is already making big waves.
Amphitrite raises €1.2M to revolutionize ocean data. Co-founded by Evangelos Moschos, the French-based startup uses AI to accelerate shipping decarbonization.
Movingdoors raises €1.16M to expand operations in Dubai. Cyprus-based proptech startup closed a seed round backed by Uni.fund, Genesis and Venteri Capital.
🤖 Tech & Startups
Where do Greek VCs invest and what are they looking for? Ambition and a can-do attitude are at the top of qualities they all want to see in new founders.
Crete turning into tech talent hub via Cisco, thanks to the company’s acquisition of Greek startup Code BGP now building an even bigger, top class team on the island.
From Work from Home (WFH) to Company from Home (CFM). Solopreneurships and home-based digital companies are rising fast in Greece. Is the trend here to last?
To Join or Not Join a Startup? John Raptis shares his experience from working in different early-stage companies, or as he calls it: “notes from the battlefield.”
Open competition for the development of a Greek SmallSat constellation. Ministry of Digital has put forth an official tender (€60M from €130M budget). More info here.
🏭 Economy & Business
Greek economy expected to continue strong this year. Growth forecasts for 2024: GR Gov 2.9%, BoG 2.5%, IOBE 2.4%, IMF 2.1%, EC 2.3%, OECD 2%, ING 1.3%, BofA 1.1%.
PPC plans to invest €9B until 2026. Ambitious investment project from Greece’s power utility co aiming to turn itself into a market leader in South-Eastern Europe.
Ecoener to invest €300M in 350MW renewable projects in Greece. Greek Gov recently issued first admin licence for the initial 10 projects Ecoener plans to develop.
Day Group to invest €40M to build a modern hotel in the center of Glyfada. One of many new investments in the hospitality industry around the “Athens Riviera” area.
Greece plans ‘significant’ Piraeus Bank stake sale. Greek state plans to sell large portion of its stake in Piraeus soon, shared PM Mitsotakis during his visit in Davos.
Greece launches Athens airport IPO for a 30% stake. The sale plus dividends could yield up to €1.2B for the Greek state. Trading debut expected around Feb. 7.
🤔 Thinking Out of The Box
What if we actually win from the brain drain? A potentially radical take by serial entrepreneur George Hadjigeorgiou, which finds me in absolute agreement.
Debate and patriotism for the economy. VC investor Aristos Doxiadis advocates that honest dialogue and entrepreneurial patriotism can help the Greek economy.
Innovation is not (only) what we think it is. Series of discussions hosted by Prof. Stathis Kalyvas aims to reshape our view of what innovation is. Book tickets here.
Discussing burnout openly. Tech duo of Paris Kasidiaris and Antonis Kalipetis discuss their experiences with burnout and the dos/dont’s of working too much.
What can a 24-year-old nutritionist teach us about digital marketing? Content creator Ioanna Nakaki shares how she built an online audience and digital business.
🙌 Celebrating Greek wins
Alex Dimakis is leading one of the most powerful AI hubs in the world. The renowned scientist now holds the keys to one of the greatest AI initiatives on record.
Lars Rasmussen is a prolific angel investor in Greek startups. The Google Maps co-founder (and honorary Greek) invests often in new ventures, in and out of Greece.
Evangelos Oikonomou received the prestigious ASCI E-Gen Award in recognition of his immersive research as a young physician-scientist working in the US.
13 y.o. student Marita Datseri wins 1st place in global literature competition. The Global Literature Competition was hosted by the Writers’ Union of Northern Greece.
Greek gyros production unit to be based inside an American university. Rutgers University's Food Innovation Center to host new production facility of Mega Giros.
🤯 Did you know?
The oldest proof of Homo sapiens living outside Africa was found in Greece. Two fossilized human crania found in Apidima Cave at the beautiful Mani peninsula provide the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens living in Eurasia. Discovered in the late 1970s, the two skulls were estimated to be more than 210,000 years old in a landmark study published in 2019 and co-authored by a number of Greek experts.
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That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading,
The Greek Analyst
Thanks. I am looking at greece2.0 details to see if there is more info on disbursment in this topic.
Thanks, very interesting. Are most investments driven by RRF / EUngen ?