Electromobility enters Radnevo: ideas, solutions and new opportunities for the region

On February 6, 2025, Radnevo became a small but important center of conversations about the future of mobility. An information and working meeting on the project was held in the municipality building. RuralMED Mobility – initiative of the program Interreg Euro-MED, which focuses on an often overlooked topic: how to make sustainable transport reach smaller settlements.

From the very opening, made by Dr. Rumyana Grozeva, Executive Director of SZ REDA, it became clear that the conversation would not be just formal. On the contrary – the discussion quickly moved on to concrete questions: why electric vehicles are still rare in rural areas and how this can change.

Eng. Nikolay Kolev and Eng. Adrian Hristov presented the project not as an abstract strategy, but as a real tool for change. RuralMED Mobility has the ambition to help local authorities build what is missing – from charging infrastructure to comprehensive solutions for shared electromobility and intelligent transport planning.

And here comes the crux: in big cities, electromobility is already a fact, but in smaller municipalities it is often stopped by a simple concern – “Where will I charge?” It is this problem, known as “range anxiety”, that is among the main barriers that the project aims to overcome.

The meeting in Radnevo did not remain just at the level of analysis. The participants – representatives of the local government, energy companies and citizens – discussed specific options:

• construction of charging stations in the municipality;
• introduction of pilot solutions with shared electric vehicles;
• better coordination between institutions and business;
• new funding models and partnerships.

Particularly valuable was the open discussion, in which a common position clearly emerged: electromobility is not just a technological novelty, but a chance for better connectivity, a cleaner environment, and new economic opportunities for the region.

The RuralMED Mobility project does not start from scratch – it builds on European experience, but has the ambition to adapt solutions to the reality of rural areas. This includes not only infrastructure, but also smart digital tools, new mobility-as-a-service services and better planning of transport connections.

The meeting ended with a clear signal: there is interest, there are ideas, and the next step is action. Specific pilot initiatives are to be defined that can turn Radnevo and the region into an example of how even smaller municipalities can be part of the green transition.

And if until now electromobility seemed like something "distant", after this meeting it now has very real outlines - here, at the local level.