There is a lot of talk about the electric car, but its sales are still stagnant. According to the Electromobility Barometer for 2022, prepared by the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (Anfac), Spain follows the tail in electromobility. During the last year, the global indicator stood at 15.3 points, which represents a growth of 3.5 points with respect to the previous year, but well below the 33.7 of the European average.
In 2022, the electrified vehicle penetration indicator achieves an average rating of 23.2 points, which represents a growth of 3.6 points. With this score, Spain is positioned in the penultimate place in the ranking of the Electromobility Barometer. Insufficient, according to Anfac. The referents: Germany, the Netherlands or the United Kingdom.
Electric cars are still not taking off. Behind this low registration, there are several reasons: prices, low autonomy, lack of charging points or doubts about its contribution to the environment.
From the electric vehicles area of Applus Idiada, they add, in statements collected by the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), that "any change tends to provoke fear and resistance that translates into discourses that take a small part of the truth to generate myths that more easily spread than more complex scientifically based theories."
It is one of the main barriers, because buying a car in the same segment, but gasoline or diesel, can be much cheaper. However, Luis Miguel Vitoria, co-founder of the training and consulting company EVE explains to the DGT that "it is not so much because they are unjustifiably expensive as because most manufacturers have opted for high-segment vehicles."
The slowness of official aid does not help, he says: "Moves III contributes up to 7,000 euros, but the process is cumbersome and it is considered patrimonial aid, so it has an impact on personal income tax."
There are data that substantiate this fear. At the end of 2022, Spain only had 18,128 charging points. It is one of the main fears of buyers. Very far from other countries and the objectives set in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which set between 80,000 and 100,000 points for 2023.
It is not the only problem, acknowledges Anfac. “Of the total number of new charging points installed during 2022, it should be noted that 55% still correspond to powers of 22kW or less, that is, 2,582 charging points. In its entirety, at the end of 2022, to consolidate a quality charging infrastructure network, it is necessary to install fast charging points above 22kW that allow reducing the charging times of electrified vehicles. At the end of 2022, only 21% of the public access charging infrastructure met this condition”, they point out.
To the detriment of the electric ones, the use of clean energy made by the electric one has been contrasted with the footprint left by the whole of its manufacture. The greatest environmental impact is "in the production of the battery, which needs a lot of energy to be manufactured," acknowledges Vitoria. Its advantage is that “it retains 75% of its useful capacity after eight years and 165,000 km. In addition, it can be used to store the photovoltaic energy produced by domestic plates”.
According to the DGT, this aspect has two variables: the amount of energy that can accumulate and the supposed progressive loss of storage capacity. On this point, the Applus Idiada specialists ensure that "the future Euro 7 regulation has added a durability requirement", which requires electric and hybrid vehicles to guarantee up to 80% of the energy capacity of the battery for five years and 70 % at seven. Regarding autonomy, the new ones would offer about 400 km.
