Legal framework for the development of electromobility: the assessment of legislative solutions supporting innovation

One can consider the signing of the Polish Act on Electromobility and Alternative Fuels (hereinafter referred to as the Electromobility Act) at the beginning of 2018 as a spur to systemic changes aimed at supporting innovation in this area. This Act and numerous regulations from other acts, mostly these that were amended at that time, as well as the secondary regulations form a content-rich collection of normative materials constituting an important referential set of texts allowing to establish possible spectrum of legislator's impact on the social relations. According to the authors of this study, the regulation concerning electromobility goes beyond a simple and declared by the lawmakers support for the usage of electric cars aimed at making transport independent from fossil fuels and limiting the emission of toxic substances into the atmosphere as it can also be seen as a significant not only in theory but also in practice mechanism of state's impact on the environment and achievement of social goals. Despite the fact that legal framework of the support for the development of electromobility seem to be limited in content (they are contained in several dozens of sections), it constitutes a rare example of horizontal regulations covering various methods of impact. This is due to the fact that the support for electric vehicle is expressed in various subjective and objective scopes and using different mechanisms, incentives for consumers of fiscal nature as well as direct bonuses, changes making the use of road infrastructure easier, obligations for public entities including the method of provision of public services, and mechanisms of administrative and legal impact on the economy. Apart from the classic form of the executive, individual decision by the administrative bodies, a broad category of administrative planning becomes of significant importance. An important part of this study constitutes the critical analysis of the selected mechanisms of support for innovation within the scope of electromobility. It includes not only the legislative and legal aspect but mostly the assessment of effectiveness, coherence, and adequacy of the used solution for the achievement of extensive social and economic goals. Examples of that would be the discovered gaps in the Act within the scope of using the zero-emissions buses when providing public transport services by the local government authorities as well as inconsistency of the legislators consisting in the fiscal support for the purchase of vehicles that in practice, are not vehicles covered by the amendment to the Electromobility Act. This regulatory framework included in the Electromobility Act and secondary regulations that are analyszed in this paper enable to present the significant theoretical issues. They also form the basis for the detailed findings that are of significant importance both for the legal practice and for the determination of future desirable changes in the law.