Balearic Islands to become EV oasis

The Balearic government has announced plans to ban vehicles that run on fossil fuels from the streets of Mallorca, as well as from those on the other Balearic Islands by 2035. A diesel-ban is to start even sooner, by 2025.

The plan foresees that as of 2025, no more diesel vehicles will be allowed to be registered on any of the Balearic Islands, with the same ruling coming into effect for regular combustion motors as of 2035.

Tourists will not be allowed to drive their diesel vehicles onto the island when visiting as of 2025 either. Trucks will also be affected by the law, however currently registered and existing vehicles on the island will be allowed to continue to operate in the future.

Local politicians have already made known they expect the transition to have taken place before then, considering how old the combustion motor vehicles would be by 2050.

In more current developments regarding electric mobility on the islands, last October it was announced that in the next years, a total of 500 fast charging stations will be constructed, 300 of which will be on the island of Mallorca. The infrastructure will be financed with a 13 million euro fund taken out of tourism taxes.

Furthermore, as of the year 2030, rental vehicles will all be electric, according to another law concept, that was introduced in last November. The move would also be slowly phased in, starting with a 10% fleet requirement for electric vehicles in 2020, which would be raised by another 10% annually.

Electric editor Peter Schwierz tested out the Mallorquin roads for their readiness for EVs in 2016, at which time coverage was found to be insufficient.

electrive.net (in German)