Even today, in Barcelona and the metropolitan area of the Catalan capital, as in Spain as a whole, more diesel vehicles are sold and registered than electric vehicles. Specifically, in the first nine months of 2023, a total of 2,027 electric cars, motorcycles and vans were added to the Barcelona vehicle fleet. In that same period, 2,813 units fueled by the reviled hydrocarbon did so.
The above data, offered by Barcelona City Council based on the latest records from the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), reveals to what extent the advance of electric mobility – bicycles and personal mobility vehicles apart – is being much slower. than expected a few years ago and is still a huge distance from the objectives set by the different administrations for a very near time horizon.
The high prices of vehicles, the insufficiency of a public charging network that institutions such as the City Council or the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) are now trying to alleviate at a forced pace, the lack of irrefutable incentives for purchasing and the resistance to change Some habits with an expiration date combine to slow down the transition towards electric mobility in this city and in neighboring municipalities, an urban region that still constitutes the spearhead, rather blunt, of this process of change in Spain.
The last census of Barcelona's vehicle fleet, corresponding to the end of 2021, indicated the existence of only 14,057 electric vehicles in the city compared to a total of 811,673 units. More than half of these vehicles were mopeds (7,995), followed in number by passenger cars (2,619) and very little behind by motorcycles (2,458). That was the still photo almost three years ago now. It seemed that the time had come to give a strong boost to the process of replacing gasoline and diesel vehicles with electric or hybrid ones. However, since then that leap, which the big brands' firm commitment to zero-emission vehicles was supposed to accelerate, has not occurred or, at least, it has not occurred with the magnitudes that could be expected.
Between January 1 and September 30, 7.83% of vehicles registered in Barcelona were electric. It is a lower proportion even than what the statistics of previous years show: 8.44% in 2021 and 10.73% in 2022. That 7.83% is, however, a clearly higher percentage than the of Spain as a whole, which barely exceeds 4.5%.
It has always been said that in this first phase of conversion of the vehicle fleet towards electric mobility, Barcelona's commitment must be to the motorcycle. A report published last week by the Spanish Union of Insurance and Reinsurance Entities (Unespa) based on data collected by the National Association of Companies in the Two-Wheel Sector (Anesdor) estimates that there are just over 100,000 electric motorcycles, mopeds and scooters that circulate in Spain. The aforementioned report places Madrid (5.41%), the Balearic Islands (3.47%9 and Barcelona (3.07%) on the podium of the provinces with the highest proportion of motorcycles that use an engine other than a combustion engine.
In the renewal of the vehicle fleet and in the move towards less polluting mobility, public transport is playing an essential role. An example of this is the renewal of the Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) bus fleet. By the end of 2024, the company is expected to have 232 electric vehicles and 44 hydrogen buses. The goal is for 25% of the fleet to be made up of zero-emission vehicles.
Meanwhile, the public network of charging points for cars and electric motorcycles Endolla Barcelona is increasing its presence in the city, with charging stations on public roads and, above all, in BSM parking lots. At the end of 2020, this network had 536 points while currently it has reached 718.
The Barcelona network is the largest public network in Spain and one of the most extensive in Europe.
