Major Developments in 2024

The market share of electric vehicles (EVs) remained at 4.2%. The combined share of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) was around 8%, compared to 20–25% in Europe. The market share of heavy-duty battery electric vehicles (BEVs) stood at about 0.5%. In total, 1,563,682 new vehicles were registered, including internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs).

At the end of the year the number of EVs on the road had reached approximately 277,365 units, including 65,000 new registrations of fully electric cars. This reflects a 20% increase compared to 2023. Electric bus sales increased by over 250%, with 1,173 units sold. Hybrid bus sales saw a slight increase of 26%, and 44 new hydrogen buses were introduced.

Public charging points reached over 60,330, a 30% increase from 2023. Fast charging points increased by 60%, totalling 12,700. Private charging points are estimated to be ten times higher than public ones. Most charging points are in northern Italy (58%), with the rest distributed between the Centre (20%), the South and Islands (22%). In 2024, the government allocated €950 million to promote the freight sector transition, aiming to boost the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles and infrastructure.

Part of these incentives (€403 million) has been used to purchase new EURO 6 petrol or diesel cars: €240 million for EVs and other cars with emissions of 0-20 g/km of CO2; €20 million for second-hand vehicles; €53 million for LDVs; and €50 million for rental vehicles. €150 million has been allocated for new vehicles with emissions of 21-60 g/km of CO2 (mainly PHEVs). Incentives per capita range from €1,500 to €13,750, with the maximum amount for individuals with low financial income.

In 2024, state incentives have been provided to support the installation of private and public EV charging infrastructure. They targeted professionals and private companies, with a total of €87.5 million allocated, and domestic users, with €20 million allocated. For domestic users, the incentives will cover 80% of the installation cost for home chargers. Other incentives came from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).

This incentive has been allocated for installing 7,500 ultra-fast charging points in urban centres (€279 million) and 10,880 extra along urban roads (€360 million) . The target is to reach 21,000 public fast charging points by the end of 2025. EV sales only increased when incentives were released. The same trend was seen with the installation of private e-chargers benefiting from the Eco bonus.

Demonstration Projects

Lithium is considered strategic for ecological transition. An innovative project led by the University of Brescia in Italy has been conducted to recover lithium from exhausted batteries that also contain strategic metals such as cobalt, nickel, and manganese, which are among the critical materials at risk of depletion by 2030. The innovative method for recovering rare metals from spent lithium-ion batteries uses microwaves to rapidly heat them to over 600°C in just a few seconds.

This process, applied to a lithium-cobalt oxide type, allows more than 80% of lithium to be recovered with treatment inside a microwave oven at 600W for about five minutes. The research demonstrates the high efficiency of this process, where the amount of recovered lithium increases with the treated black mass to lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) black mass. This increase supports the potential of proposing this technology as a new sustainable approach. The goal is to reach about 95% efficiency in lithium, manganese, and cobalt recovery.

With the support of Artificial Intelligence, the same research group at the University of Brescia discovered a new material derived from the treatment of spent lithium-ion batteries that could regenerate CO2 captured from industrial processes. The research, conducted within the Tech4Lib project, highlights the innovative approach to using AI as an interactive instrument linked to human experience to support new technology to recycle strategic materials. Indeed, AI has been used to support the identification of a new catalyst to use CO2 in the synthesis of new innovative and sustainable materials.

Outlook

There is an urgency for an action plan to protect and re-boost the national automotive industry. This should be accompanied by a general sensitisation towards electric mobility that will contribute to accelerating the diffusion of zero-emissions vehicles. The new Energy and Climate Plan (Piano Energia and Clima – PNIEC) released in June 2023 by the Ministry of the Environment set a target of 6.6 million electric cars (BEVs + PHEVs) sold by 2030 (including 4.3 million BEVs).

This target can be reached with the registration of about 800,000 electric cars each year by 2030. Therefore, there is a need to support the development of a public charging network along highways and high-speed extra-urban roads. This should be accompanied by the implementation of a digital platform mapping in real time the available charging infrastructure on the national territory that is accessible to all EV drivers.

Compared to the previous year 2024, revised forecasts from three automotive market scenarios have been reported in the yearly “Smart Mobility Report” published by the Italian Polytechnic Institute in Milano in October 2024.

Results from scenarios of diffusion of passenger cars are summarised as follows:

• “Business-As-Usual” (BAU) scenario: this scenario foresees an adoption of almost 2.8 million electric vehicles by 2030.
• “Policy Driven” (PD) scenario: in this scenario, the number of electric vehicles is foreseen to reach 6,6 million by 2030.
• “Full Decarbonised” (FD) scenario: in this scenario the number of electric vehicles is foreseen to reach about 7.7 million by 2030.

All three scenarios forecast an increasing penetration of electric vehicles, while the number of traditional ICE cars should see a gradual decrease. By the end of 2024, in Italy, the total cost for BEV ownership is still perceived as extremely high by the public. The main barrier is the initial investment  o purchase a BEV, although there is the understanding this is a sustainable choice. However, a lot of uncertainties persist about the cost of electric energy and the possible introduction of future taxations.