A total of 3.6 mln. vehicles have been registered in Bulgaria so far, at population of 7.2 mln. This means a vehicle per each 2 people, including minors and elderly people. 2.7 mln. of those are cars. Over 300,000 units were purchased in 2017 only. Numerous developed EU member-states can’t praise with such numbers.

It all sounds great in terms of economy, but the environment is not that happy.

Basically, the entire civilized world has been taking measures to restrict gas and diesel cars at the expense of hybrids and electrical vehicles. At the moment Bulgaria remains aside from this trend. There are a bit over 300 electrical cars out of 2.7 mln. registered with the traffic police records. Some 3,000 hybrids with electrical and gas engines are available, alongside some 100 which combine electricity with diesel. This percentage - less than 1% is negligible. On the other hand the new – secondhand cars ratio in Bulgaria in terms of sales is 1:10 and the average age of the vehicles is 18 years. These indexes have no analogue within the EU. There were barely 43,000 new cars out of the 300,000 registered last year, nearly 13,000 were up to 5 years old and the older ones were around 230,000. Gas remains the most preferred fuel type – a total of 1.6 mln. cars. Nearly 15,000 of those have been registered with methane and some 170,000 run propane. However, the second digit might be quite higher, as not all the owners have registered the second fuel with their licenses. There are 1.5 mln. diesel cars. Data on 23% growth in new cars’ sales through 2017 gives certain hope that the number of secondhand vehicles will decrease.

After all, it all comes up to incomes and economic reasons outweigh the environmental ones. Old cars pollute more the atmosphere with gases and dust particles. Gas and diesel cars are enemy of nature and harm it for good – nobody denies that. At the same time few Bulgarians can afford the purchase of a new car which pollutes the air less – those are worth over EUR 10,000 at an average wage of EUR 500 in Bulgaria. Even fewer people can afford the luxury of a hybrid or an electric car – the prices there are fantastic for our living standard. Furthermore, as far as car transportation is concerned, Bulgaria currently is at the stage, covered by the European industrial states in mid-20^th c. – it has been building up highways. At this point no one considers the construction of more electric vehicles charging stations for the batteries of hybrids and electrical cars which are not that well spread so far. Any financial subsidies for owners of environmentally friendly vehicles also remain in the future. At least the authorities did some good to stimulate the usage of such cars – those are allowed to park for free across downtown paid parking areas. At the same time the construction of electric vehicles charging points is left to gas stations themselves. The latter have accepted the challenge and the necessary devices have already been installed at many spots.