Ford Spain calls for more public electric charging points: "Cities must be transformed"

The president and CEO of Ford Iberia, Jesús Alonso, has made an appeal this Wednesday to the administrations in a context of progress in electrification: "We need to transform cities, we need more chargers on the streets.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
22 March 2023 Wednesday 06:34
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Ford Spain calls for more public electric charging points: "Cities must be transformed"

The president and CEO of Ford Iberia, Jesús Alonso, has made an appeal this Wednesday to the administrations in a context of progress in electrification: "We need to transform cities, we need more chargers on the streets." Alonso's request, within the framework of the eMobility Expo World Congress held at Feria Valencia, is based on figures from the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (Anfac) which estimates that there are 340,000 public charging points that are needed by the end of the decade, in 2030, compared to the current 15,000 points.

Although, according to Anfac figures, electrified sales are improving, they only represent 10.5% of the market and are still far from the European average. "Electrification in Europe is growing exponentially, but in Spain we have to make an effort," Alonso acknowledged.

Alonso has thus asked the administrations to bet on this public infrastructure and also inject fiscal aid to private charging points, because "we have to think that not everyone in Spain has a garage, most people live in apartments."

In his speech, the head of Ford Iberia spoke about the role of automotive companies in the electrification process, a "great challenge" for the sector that he compared to the one faced by the multinational Ford in its early days.

In this process, Alonso has talked about the company's deadlines, which has an important date in 2026 because "there will be many launches." He has spoken about the transformation of Colonia into a production center for electric vehicles -the Explorer presented yesterday in Valencia will be produced there-, as well as the production of batteries from Turkey.

On the other hand, the role of Almussafes in this electrification has not yet given details, since the company reserves the deadlines. Yes, he has said that for the factory - "the most productive and flexible of Ford" - they have "big plans" because the next generation of electric cars will be made from there, but he has said that "we have to prepare the future, take advantage of the opportunities and transform the industry to be competitive".