An appeal presented two years ago completely paralyzed the plan to install fifty quick charging points for electric vehicles in the municipalities around the Catalan capital. Since then, the work has been completely paralyzed, without the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) being able to deploy a single new electric station until the Catalan Public Sector Contracts Tribunal has dismissed the appeal and ruled in favor of the supramunicipal administration.
Once the situation has been unblocked, the AMB has already started work to enable as soon as possible 45 new electric charging stations equipped with fast and semi-fast charging points, of which three will be considered ultra-fast, designed to give autonomy to people who are on the move. In total, 367 vehicles can be charged simultaneously.
The works involve an investment of four million euros, half of them financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union, which have been on the verge of being lost due to the delay associated with the judicial appeal.
The installation of the new 45 points coincides with a rethinking of the metropolitan electric vehicle charging strategy. From now on, the electric stations on public roads – of which there were ten until now – are unified in the same network with the twenty photo stations powered by canopies equipped with photovoltaic panels. These facilities were promoted by the Ecology area of the AMB, in the hands of the commons in the previous mandate, and operated in parallel to the electric stations of the Socialist Mobility area, as if they were taifa kingdoms in the previous metropolitan government.
From now on everything will be grouped under the same management and various municipal charging points will also be absorbed. Between one thing and another, 102 electric charging stations will be reached next year, in what the vice president of Mobility of the AMB, Carlos Cordón, defined during the Consell de la Mobilitat held this Tuesday as “the largest rapid charging network in the south.” of Europe".
The intense deployment is accompanied by an important change in conditions, since it will become paid, following the path already taken by the municipal company of the Catalan capital Barcelona Serveis Municipals (BSM) two years ago, when it began charging for the recharging cars and motorcycles. Those responsible for the project justify that the initial free service to attract users has mutated into a paid service also in all major European cities to guarantee the economic sustainability of the network.
The rates of metropolitan charging points will range from €0.24 to €0.36/kWh during the first two hours depending on the speed of the charger used. The current average recharge is 15 kWh, which would cost approximately 4.5 euros for a range of 100 kilometers.
