The Swiss is facing the energy crisis with a plan divided into several levels of criticality which correspond to increasingly stringent rules aimed at limiting consumption, especially of electricity, which William Tell’s country produces in abundance, also exploiting numerous Alpine dams, not counting nuclear power. 25-30% of requirements are then imported from France and Germany but today more than ever the concern is to be independent so as not to rely too much on external contributions which may not be infinite.
In Switzerland, charging stations for electric cars they are very widespread and in almost all motorway service areas there are an adequate number of them to meet a growing demand for “on tap” cars (in 2021 the best-selling car in the country was the Tesla Model 3); many supermarkets offer free refills in the time it takes to go shopping, even with ultrafast columns. If we add to these factors the high purchasing power of a significant part of the population, a certain ecological sensitivity and a strong tendency towards innovation, we understand how the electric car is already a constant presence on the streets and in the garages of families.
However, this situation today shows a reverse side of the medal, given that electricity for motor vehicles is starting to become a significant part of Swiss energy consumption. Thus, if in the second level of the measures being studied by the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research EAER (Questions and answers: measures to tackle the shortage of electricity (consultation) is expected to reduce the Speed Limit highway at 100 km/h for all cars, so as to reduce the consumption of fossil fuel to be used in a compensatory way in emergency generators and bio-fuel plants, in the third level there is a fear, in the event of a persistent shortage, of ban the use of private electric cars for pleasuregranting exceptions only to travel related to the exercise of one’s profession and out of necessity (shopping, going to the doctor, for example).
Nothing alarming, they argue from beyond the Gotthard: simply the problem has already been posed of how to change one’s individual behavior to reduce energy consumption in case of shortage of more or less persistent electricity, with measures that will in any case have to be examined by the Cantons and the Confederation.
