Abstract:

Spain has experienced slow uptake of electric vehicles and related charging infrastructure through 2019, creating an immense challenge for widespread electrification. By the end of 2019, Spain had 46,000 registered electric vehicles representing 0.2% of the 25 million passenger cars in Spain and 8,000 chargers. This working paper assesses the electric vehicle charging infrastructure necessary in Spain by 2030 versus what was installed at the end of 2019. Two vehicle uptake scenarios—50% and 70% of light duty passenger vehicle registrations by 2030—are explored. The focus of the paper is on passenger cars, while light commercial vehicles and heavy-duty vehicles are excluded from the analysis. Results are presented for metropolitan areas and for the remaining nonmetropolitan areas by autonomous community regions. The results show that Spain currently has 10% to 12% of the necessary charging needed by 2025 and 3% to 4% of the charging needed by 2030 under these adoption scenarios. Charger installation will need to increase 43% to 46% annually until 2025 to support the scenarios in this paper. Because fewer chargers per vehicle are needed as the market grows, the annual increase will decline from 2025 to 2030. Despite a declining public charger per vehicle ratio, a growing market still requires increasing charger installation until 2030.