Last year, electric mobility took a big leap in Spain. Public access charging points, one of the weaknesses of zero-emission cars, increased by 38%, from 13,300 to 21,500. Meanwhile, registrations of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids (the vast majority, cars) increased by almost 21% and are already a fleet of more than 325,000. “Despite inflation and the context, it has been an exceptional year for the sector”, explained this Tuesday Arturo Pérez de Lucia, general director of the Business Association for the Development and Promotion of Electric Vehicles (aedive), during the presentation of the first Electric Mobility Yearbook.
“2022 has been an important year due to the increase in vehicle registrations of all types (pure electric and plug-in hybrids), and in the take-off of infrastructure, which has gone hand in hand with the growth of the park”, has valued Pérez de Lucia to EL PAÍS. “Despite the positive data, it is not yet the year of inflection, which will occur when more electrified vehicles are sold than combustion, but it does mark an important growth trend,” he added.
According to the data, made public at the headquarters of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, the fundamental growth has occurred in recharging points ―called Recharging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (IRVE)―: last year almost 8,200 new points were installed, expanding the network up to more than 21,500. Of these, 65% have a power of more than 22 kilowatts (kW) and, of these, 30% are fast and high-powered (from 50 to 400 kW). In addition, there are another 7,400 points installed but not yet operational due to lack of a license from the public administrations, management of electricity distributors or other problems.
The objective of Transición Ecológica was to reach 100,000 charging points by the end of this year, an objective that was practically impossible to achieve. “In any case, the average national use of each point is still 4%,” said the spokesman for Aedive, which brings together more than 200 companies in Spain and Portugal. The ministry also has yet to publish a map with the location of these infrastructures, something they are already working on.
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As for the sale of electric vehicles (pure and plug-in hybrids), it has followed an exponential progression, multiplying its number by more than five in five years: from 18,900 in 2018 to 100,000 in 2022. “31% of the 325,000 electric vehicles that exist in Spain were sold last year”, pointed out Pérez de Lucia. In this case, the Government’s objectives have been exceeded, which intended to reach 250,000 units by the end of the year. Those around 100,000 vehicles account for almost 13% of the total of 800,000 cars dispatched in the country last year.
The yearbook, which is being published for the first time with a view to continuity, also analyzes urban vehicles dedicated to rental by the minute in cities. Thus, in the large Spanish cities there are 3,500 cars in this modality (called carsharing), 22,000 motorcycles (motosharing), and 17,250 electric scooters. The report leaves out electric bicycles, the best-selling electric vehicle in Spain by far: according to data from the Association of Brands and Bicycles of Spain (AMBE), in 2022 236,183 bicycles with assisted pedaling were dispatched, and their number in Spain already exceeds the million.
Another of the factors that will promote the change from combustion cars to electric ones is the implementation of low emission zones (ZBE) in the 149 largest Spanish cities. These are areas in the center of cities that place limitations on gasoline or diesel vehicles, while facilitating the passage of electric vehicles. By law, the new LEZs should have started on January 1, but most cities are postponing them until after the municipal elections in May. The only ones released this year, those of Seville and Zaragoza, are small, with few restrictions and, for the moment, no fines. Madrid and Barcelona do have two large restricted areas.
“There is much to be done, but we cannot continue to depend on fossil fuels,” explained Isabel del Olmo, head of Sustainable Mobility at the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), during the presentation. “For this reason, from the Government – to which the IDAE belongs – we are implementing different measures to expedite the penetration of electric mobility, among which the future low emission zones stand out, the modification of the Building Code to establish minimum endowments charging points in buildings, as well as a recent decree to modify the access order to State highways to speed up the installation of charging infrastructures”
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