Israel's largest shipment of electric cars arrived at the beginning of May. A ship carrying 1,500 Tesla Model 3 cars is unloading at the Ashdod port. The delivery is six times the size of the first shipment from the American electric car maker that arrived in March and equals all of the electric vehicles sold in Israel from GM, Audi, Renault, Jaguar, Nissan, Mercedes, Mini and other car makers during all of 2020. 

Still, China is looking like an even bigger future importer of electric cars to Israel. In the next two years it is expected to bring as many as eight Chinese vehicle brands to the country. 

The May Tesla shipment arrived a week after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s April 23 speech at the virtual climate summit convened by US President Joe Biden. Netanyahu committed Israel to reducing CO2 emissions and completing the switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy by 2050, as did many Western nations. 

But the various government ministries have not yet come to an agreement regarding the full plan of how to do so. In fact, in the “Low Carbon Economy 2050” plan that the government ministries produced, there is no commitment at this time to reach zero emissions in 2050. The Energy Ministry is ready to commit to reduce emissions in the electricity sector by 75-85% at most.