Iberdrola and BP are taking a new step in their alliance to accelerate the deployment of electric mobility. Electricity and oil sent information about the ‘joint venture’ to the European Commission which they agreed in the summer of last year and sealed in March of this year, where they plan a joint investment of 1,000 million euros in 11,700 fast charging points, expanding the necessary infrastructure for electric car in Spain and Portugal.
The announcement of the operation, as shown in the Commission’s official record, took place on Thursday last week and was published this Monday. Brussels clarified that the information was prepared by Iberdrola and BP “under their exclusive responsibility” and that their content “not in any way prejudice” the opinion that may be adopted about the planned operation.
The two communicated on the day the agreement was signed that they hope to receive the necessary regulatory and competition approvals in the second half of this year. specifically, The new combined company will be based in Madrid with a direct subsidiary established in Portugal. The purpose of the corporation is clear: the installation, operation and maintenance of a public network of charging stations for electric cars with a charging speed of more than 50 kW power in the Iberian Peninsula. The operation is part of the alliance framework provided by Iberdrola in its 2023-2025 Strategic plan.
Both companies will contribute their current and future points
The agreement contemplates the installation and operation of 5,000 fast charging points by 2025, and 11,700 points will be reached by 2030. To achieve the goal, both companies will contribute their current and future fast charging points to the joint venture. They also work together to develop integrated solutions for public and residential billing in the UK.
Iberdrola exceeds 5,000 charging points in Spain, after adding more than 200 chargers per month through 2023. In addition, it has another 3,000 under construction and another 2,000 waiting for regulatory approvals. But its ambition is even greater and its plan is to reach 150,000 charging points in homes/businesses and on public roads in the coming years. For this, it foresees important agreements with car manufacturers, city councils, autonomous communities and important partners for electric mobility.
Another alliance with the same objective and also between an electricity company and an oil company is that of Cepsa and Endesa. Under its 2030 strategy, ‘Positive Motion’, the oil company announced last year that it will develop “the largest electric mobility ecosystem in Spain and Portugal” with Endesa, with an ultra-fast road charging network which reaches the minimum ratio of a charger of 150 kW every 200 kilometers on the main highways and interurban roads.
The association of car manufacturers Anfac warns that Spain needs to increase its high-power charging network by five with the aim of reducing recharge times to less than 30 minutes on average. It considers that this year it should reach 3,513 with more than 150 kW if the annual emission reduction goals of ‘Fit for 55’ are to be achieved.
Operation points will grow by 16.4% at the end of the semester
For its part, the Business Association for the Development and Promotion of Electric Mobility (Aedive) estimates that there are 25,106 charging points operating in the country on June 30 of this year, which represents a 16.4% increase over the same period in 2022. . It also estimates that there are about 6,800 waiting to be put into service. If all of them are activated, the network will exceed 31,000, a number that is far from the goal set by the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), financed by European funds, which shows that between 80,000 and 110,000 will be deployed. points in 2023, between parking lots and roads.
On the other hand, the sector also warns of the bad image that “ghost charging points” give to users. “Either they don’t have connection permits or they are not active,” said the general director of Anfac, Jose Lopez-Tafall. Bureaucracy is again a limitation in promoting decarbonization. Operators can wait up to one and a half years (and up to two) just to get permission to start installing a charging point.
The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) launched a public consultation on charging infrastructure for electric vehicles to gather the opinions of different agents of the sector (companies, associations, public administration, car users, etc.) about the problems they encounter in the development of installation and start-up points.
