Nissan to Expand EV Charging Network in Spain

MADRID – Looking to spark lagging electric-vehicle sales in Spain, Nissan partners with German company Easycharge to install 100 new EV charging points during the next 18 months.

Nissan already has installed 117 charge points in the country, mainly at its dealerships.

The automaker plans to locate a charging station at least every 90 miles (150 km) of motorway to “help motorists lose the fear of running out of battery during a trip,” Nissan Spain CEO Marco Toro says during a recent mobility forum in Madrid.

Nissan’s all-electric Leaf has about 150 miles (242 km) of range when its battery is fully charged.

Nissan’s effort appears modest in light of a forecast by Miguel Arias Canete, the European Commission’s commissioner for climate and energy, that Spain will need 220,000 charging points in 2030, while currently there only are about 1,750.

Arias Canete’s estimate is based on the European Union’s goal that Spain’s EV fleet expand from the current 10,000 to 280,000 in 2030, and plug-in hybrids from 7,000 to 2 million.

Mario Armero, executive vice president of ANFAC, the main Spanish association of automakers, which also participated in the Forum, says that if Spain wants to remain Europe’s second-largest producer of cars it should be building at least 500,000 EVs per year in 2030.

Efforts to grow electrified vehicles’ share of the Spanish market are complicated by the sharp rise in the price of electric power in recent years. Spaniards pay the highest electricity rates in Europe.

Alcoa cited the high price of electricity in its recent announcement that it will close two of its three aluminum factories on the northern coast of Spain with the loss of nearly 700 jobs. Aluminum production consumes a large amount of electricity, and its price has grown to account for 40% of Alcoa’s total production costs.