What is the situation of electric mobility in Spain? How do we compare to other European countries? What is the development of the infrastructure of electrical charging points in our country? All this and a few more answered every three months by the National Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (ANFAC) in its Electromobility Barometer in Spain.
Now is the time to review the situation after the first quarter of 2023 and there are several interesting conclusions. Some positive, albeit minimal, others negative, mostly. But it is also the same.
25% of charging points without service
It is one of the electric recharging points that are already installed in our road infrastructure … but which are not in service. According to ANFAC, there are currently 20,243 public charging stations for electric cars in Spain.
20,000 public service points against the 80,000-100,000 that the government wants to have in 2023.
But, in addition to those 20,000, there are another 6,475 which, although they are established, are not operational. We are talking about 24% of the total active capacity that, for one reason or another (mostly due to administrative obstacles encountered at the beginning, but also because it is in poor condition or damaged), cannot be used. With these infrastructures in Europe, the country of Spain is not exactly very developed.
Suffice it to say, as a reference, that the objective of the Government this year 2023, according to the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, is to reach between 80,000 and 100,000 points of public opinion. The figures, logically, do not come closer.
Spain is losing the battle with Europe
ANFAC prepares a global electromobility indicator to assess the level of penetration of electrified vehicles and the installation of public infrastructure in each country and reports it to the European objectives in 2003.
Administrative barriers are the main barrier to network expansion.
The Spanish indicator after this first quarter has settled down 0.6 points to 11 out of 100, but it is far from the European average, which stands at 23.8 points. The growth of this average was even higher in Spain. That is, from that average, which is actually less than half.
ANFAC Spain is “lagging behind Europe in electromobility” and asks the organizers to “create a favorable context around the electrified vehicle”. Something that, as can be seen, is not a given, despite what the Government is trying to believe.
The manufacturers use countries like Portugal, in our immediate environment, as an example, which, thanks to a strong public investment program, has reached the closest approach to the European average in this section.
A bigger problem than it seems
It is not a minor problem, because if Spain wants to consolidate itself in the manufacture of electric cars, it needs a strong internal market that can supply a large part of its production… because otherwise the profits of the factories in question, with the risk this entails for the Spanish automotive industry (which is about 10% produces national GDP).
The sales volume of electric cars is also not at the required level compared to the rest of Europe.
which does not happen today. In this section, the ANFAC barometer places Spain in the third last position. And the same thing happens in our market for electrified cars with regard to the infrastructure situation: it grows at a slower rate than in other countries, and therefore we are further and further removed from the positions that the second European producer should occupy. . of cars
