Iberdrola aims to build 150,000 charging stations

Iberdrola is expanding their plans to build charging infrastructure for electric cars: The Spanish energy provider plans to invest 150 million euros over the next five years in the installation of 150,000 charging points in households, companies and cities, as well as on motorways and main roads. (UPDATE BELOW)

The company’s original roadmap envisaged 25,000 charging points by 2021 in Spain. The updated plan, which is set for five years and, according to the company, has even more ambitious targets, also includes the installation of charging points in Portugal, Italy and the UK.

The majority of the electric car chargers are still to be built in Spain. As far as equipping the national motorways with charging stations is concerned, Iberdrola is now aiming to install 350 kW stations every 200 kilometres, 150 kW stations every 100 kilometres and 50 kW stations every 50 kilometres.

To date, Iberdrola has installed 5,000 charging points nationwide, including approximately 400 fast-charging points. In addition, almost 1,600 charging stations are under construction, of which more than 300 are due to be commissioned shortly, as the energy supplier announced in a press release. Since the company’s internal mobility plan came into force 18 months ago, Iberdrola has also signed agreements with more than 30 players in the mobility market to expand the charging infrastructure. Among the contract partners are government authorities and institutions, companies, petrol station operators and dealers.

Iberdrola also cites concrete examples: For example, on behalf of Mercedes-Benz, the utility company will supply and install charging stations for all private and commercial buyers of EQ models in Spain and supply them with green electricity. At the same time, the supplier is pushing ahead with equipping filling stations with charging points as part of agreements with Avia, Ballenoil and Valcarcel. Other projects are in progress with companies such as Ikea, McDonald’s, Telefonica, REE and Auchán. Iberdrola will also develop e-mobility services for Renault’s electric car-sharing Zity and Ferrovial. Finally, the company has recently opened a charging park at the IFEMA exhibition centre in Madrid. 34 electric cars can charge simultaneously.

Iberdrola digital is also making a further advance: its charging app has been updated and supplemented with information on all charging points in Spain which are said to number 3,000. To this end, “for months all existing charging stations on public roads in Spain were geolocated and checked for their functionality”. The positioning service is now always kept up-to-date.

“Decarbonising our economy is not just a matter for the energy sector. It also requires participation and commitment by all emitting sectors, particularly the transport industry, which will have a decisive impact on reducing pollution in our cities,” says Luis Buil, global head of Smart Mobility at Iberdrola. “That’s why we have revised initial plan and have decided to be more ambitious in terms of investment and infrastructure capacities to continue to respond to the exponential growth expected in electric mobility from this year on.” This would be a response to the exponential growth expected for electric mobility from this year onwards.

Meanwhile, Iberdrola is also the first Spanish company to join the Climate Group’s EV100 initiative and has committed itself to electrify its entire vehicle fleet. Besides, employees at the sites in Spain and the United Kingdom will be able to charge their cars at work.

Update 21 September 2020: Iberdrola is ramping up its sustainable mobility strategy outlined above and signed a green loan agreement for €59.4 million with the Official Credit Institute (ICO). The money will finance the installation of 2,500 public charging points on roadsides in Spain and Portugal. The ICO funding with nine-year maturity is the fourth green loan that the Institute has granted to the Spanish company.

The company says its plan also has the support of the European Commission via the CEF Transport Blending Facility funds in the form of a €13 million subsidy. ICO, on the other hand, is an implementing partner of the CEF programme. It helps Spanish companies to secure finance for projects that will contribute to environmental sustainability and the efficiency of the transport industry.

The EU grant is to finance the installation of 2,339 fast, super-fast and ultra-fast electric vehicle charging points in Spain and Portugal by 2023. Iberdrola says these new stations will be located on busy roads in the two countries and close to the trans-European transport network (TEN-T).

With reporting by Cora Werwitzke, France, and Nora Manthey, UK.

renewablesnow.com, evwind.es, iberdrola.com, iberdrola.com (update ICO)