The Secretary General of Transport and Mobility, María José Rallo, acknowledged at the first forum ‘2035, Time to Move’, organized by XL Semanal, that the price difference with combustion cars is one of the major challenges on the road to sustainable mobility
It’s an unavoidable commitment. The European Commission’s plan to end the sale of combustion engine vehicles by 2035 requires accelerating the accelerator pedal in the transformation of a sector that accounts for 11% of GDP in Spain and generates two million jobs. During the first forum ‘2035, Time to Move’, organized by XL Semanal, industry experts and managers discussed the development of the electric car as a strategic pillar for economic recovery.
Jesús Alonso, President and CEO of Ford Spain, took part in the meeting, sponsored by Bridgestone, Ford and Iberdrola, at a time when the company has placed Spain in the European epicenter of sustainable mobility by choosing its factory in Almufasses (Valencia) for the production of its two new models. “All investments will be a boost to the economy of Valencia and, as a result, to all of Spain. The automotive industry generates long-term and indefinite employment and is committed to integrating the digital component into new jobs,” he assured during his speech.
The manager was pleased with Ford’s commitment to the Valencia plant. “It is difficult to compete with a country like Germany, but in this case it worked out well,” he said.
The event was opened by the Secretary General of Transport and Mobility, María José Rallo, who recalled that the European Commission’s plan is to have 130 million electric vehicles on our roads by 2035. “We are in uncertain times in the energy field, but decarbonization is an inevitable goal. The electric vehicle is the great lever for decarbonization in the mobility of light transport,” he assured. However, he indicated that there are three brakes that be able to stop the objective: the price, the autonomy and the charging points.
The experts at the forum agreed with this view and recalled that in Spain only one in ten vehicles is electric. In Norway that is nine out of ten. For ANFAC general manager José López-Tafall, one of the main reasons for this lower momentum in the country is that “electric vehicles are still more expensive than combustion engine vehicles.”
He believes that the support and tax incentives for the purchase are still scarce, as is the charging infrastructure. López-Tafalla also pointed to the need to retire the country’s vehicle fleet. “Emissions aren’t dropping what they should because we haven’t renovated the park; We need to take measures to allay people’s fear of buying an electric vehicle,” he assured.
Jesús Alonso spoke in the same vein of Ford, a company that, as he recalled, currently has three models of electric vehicles with 68 kilometers of real autonomy. “The administration should be the first to move very quickly towards the electric car,” he assured during the meeting. Ford’s commitment to that effect is that prices between combustion and electric vehicles will “soon be equal”.
On this point, María José Rallo recalled that the government will allocate 12,000 million euros to thirteen tractor projects related to the PERTE of the electric vehicle, with 2,000 million euros in incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles and charging stations. “We can’t miss the opportunity, we need to invest quickly, well, work together, in public-private partnerships,” he added.
Ford is making full strides in this regard. As Alonso recalled, the company has met Europe’s goals for 2035 to 2030. “We need to act quickly, not only from the automotive industry’s point of view, but also to protect the environment,” he said. The manager explained that by that target date, “all vehicles we sell in the passenger car segment will be electric. And all commercials by 2035.”
For his part, Rafael del Río. Technical director of AEDIVE was more optimistic when he indicated that the difference between combustion and electric is getting smaller “because the manufacturers are putting a very big effort in research and in compressing the margins”.
Of Ford, Jesús Alonso acknowledged that “the move to the electric and connected vehicle will bring about changes in production”, for which he did not rule out “undertaking restructuring processes to respond to these challenges”.
The experts gathered at the meeting agreed that this transition process will entail “job losses” in the sector, which will increase the pressure currently exerted by the robotization of industry that already requires less labor. . For this reason, the experts advocated “investing money in training to facilitate the transfer of jobs” to electromobility and charging infrastructure, battery production or digitalization in mobility.
The deployment of the charging infrastructure was central to a large part of the event. By the end of the year, as Del Río recalled, there is “an obligation that in every non-residential parking garage, one in 40 parking spaces is electrified and one in 20 in the case of public administration.”
The expert indicated that the autonomy of the electric car is currently 377 kilometers. In other words, this type of vehicle is a solution for short journeys, “but the use of charging points for longer journeys must be accelerated.”
During the second roundtable, where the upcoming urban challenge was analyzed, expert Carlos Rico, policy officer at Transport & Environment, explained the rules that Brussels will impose on member states so that, as electrification in the country progresses, charging infrastructure progresses. level. “Not all countries can follow the same pace, so flexibility needs to be provided so that very strict deployment targets are not set equally for all countries.”
The EC currently aims to achieve a minimum charging park of 1,400 kilowatts (kw) in rail per 60 km by 2025 and in the trans-European transport network by 2030. In the Spanish case, for example, the Mediterranean Corridor would be included, which should be given priority in infrastructure development.
“We see the electric car as the clear option for decarbonization,” Rico said. A vision that Nacho Rabadán, CEO of CEEES, did not agree with. “No one has been able to explain to me why the ideal and perfect solution is the electric car,” he criticized. In his opinion, for electric mobility to work, “we depend on all parts of the gears that work ideally and we don’t take into account that setbacks can occur. Let’s not forget that last year’s best-selling car was a diesel from more than ten years ago.
The representative of the service stations acknowledged that “for gas stations, the electric car is the ideal solution”, but warned that “we have to analyze the situation that we have as a country, if families have the means to buy an electric vehicle in times of crisis like the current one. “People drive coffee machines, a third of the best-selling vehicles last year were more than 15 years old,” he stressed. It also warns that “the placement of charging stations does not work”, and criticizes the difficulties for employees to start up their charging stations “I’m sorry to say, but the market is not mature.” “Every link in the chain has to be profitable, so also top-up services.”
The electric vehicle will not be the only mode of transport that will change the cities of the future. There are currently many companies developing projects that will completely transform mobility. Among them are Iberdrola, Miriam Gil from the company’s Smart Cities division, who ensures that “the city of the future will be digital and connected, with the citizen at the center of everything.”
The same vision is shared by Luis Vidal, founder of the Luis Vidal + Architects Studio, but this time for the sky, another major challenge for sustainable mobility. The expert is working on an airport development project for space aircraft, which aims to connect two points on the hemisphere in about two and a half hours.
A project as ambitious as the Hyperloop developed by the company Zeleros Hyperloop, among others. Ingrid de Keijser, the company’s director of press and public relations, explained the model that aims to create a train that travels through a tube with goals as ambitious as transporting citizens from Barcelona to Paris in just 90 minutes. . “In Europe there is already a Hyperloop regulatory committee, so that it will focus on freight transport by 2030 and later on passengers,” said Keijser. “The ideal range per trip is between 400 and 1,500 kilometers, which means there is a very good chance that we will leave Spain.”
At the moment, the idea of the Hyperloop is that it is complementary to other means of transport such as the AVE. “It will be an affordable medium, with prices comparable to high-speed,” he assured during his speech.
Shared mobility is also a future trend that was analyzed at the event by Florent Bannwarh, director of operations at BlaBlaCar Iberia. “76% of journeys in Europe are made by car, which will continue to be a very important player in long-distance mobility,” he assured during his speech. The manager believes that “what makes no sense now, makes no sense in the future, with an average occupancy rate per car of just 1.7 people per long-haul vehicle.” “Optimizing our mobility resources is critical,” he assured, recalling that the company is already testing shared car models for shorter distances than those currently offered with its service.
With regard to the electric vehicle, Iberdrola recalled that the company maintains an investment of 150 million euros to install 150,000 charging points in homes and businesses in the coming years. Miriam Gil explained that the entity also has two electrification projects in the Mediterranean Corridor, with the construction of higher capacity truck charging stations.
Within its strategy, it has also created one of the most competitive top-up rates on the market for its customers. Under the Electric Vehicle Plan, they can charge for 3 cents per kW if they do so overnight. “Travelling 100 km would cost them only 48 cents,” the directive states.
On this point, Gil agreed with other speakers that the main barriers to electric vehicle penetration are price and lack of support for users at the time of purchase. “Only 30% of the population has the capacity to have a charging point at home and the permit deadlines for these facilities can be 20 months,” he criticized.
The expert Carlo Ratti, architect of Carlo Ratti Associati and promoter of the MIT Senseable City Lab, was responsible for concluding the meeting that brought together directors and chief executives of the sector at Vocento’s headquarters in Madrid.
In his vision of the mobility of the future, he argued for the use of roads to ‘win’ energy by means of solar panels. And he called for thinking beyond cars to stimulate sustainable mobility. “We need to think about bicycles and other projects such as we have been developing in the Netherlands for four years, with autonomous zero-emission robots to transport passengers on demand, such as a taxi, through the canals,” he explains. The company also uses its prototypes in other segments, such as waste collection.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
