More than 1,000 Spanish gas stations to offer electric car charging

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO), has released to public information a proposal for a ministerial order on the implementation of the necessary technology to promote the use of electric cars. The proposal establishes the list of fuel supply facilities that must install charging points, so that the country has sufficient electrical recharging infrastructures.

According to government information, more than 1,000 gas stations with sales of more than five million liters per year or relevant weight in the territory must install at least one charging point for electric vehicles.

The proposed order complies with the mandate of Law 7/2021 on climate change and energy transition.

The text calls on the central government and regional governments to draw up such a list, which should include the most relevant gas stations in each territory, as well as those open in 2021 and those that have made modifications to their enabling title this year.

Gas stations with sales of more than 10 million liters of gasoline and diesel in 2019 must install at least one 150 kW recharging point within 21 months from the entry into force of the aforementioned Law. This means that the deadline is February 2023. More than 200 gas stations are included in this group.

In addition, service stations with sales of more than 5 million liters of gasoline and diesel in 2019 will have a period of 27 months from the approval of the Law -August 2023- to install at least one recharging point greater than 50 kW.

These same deadlines and requirements affect gas stations with sales of less than 5 million liters, but which lead the sales in the provinces, islands or autonomous cities in which they are located, as long as there are no other with bigger sales. More than 800 gas stations are included in the last two groups.

The exceptions

The owner of the gas station may comply with the obligation whether he is the owner of the electric charging point or not, provided that the point is located within the fuel and fuel supply facilities. The obligation to control compliance with this obligation will fall on the competent bodies in matters of gas station registrations in the regional governments.

The proposal allows three general exceptions to the obligation:

• Facilities that already have a recharging point with the same characteristics as the one they must install.
• Facilities that cannot meet the technical conditions or the applicable industrial quality and safety requirements.
• Facilities in which it is not feasible to run the electrical connection necessary for the recharging point.

The goal: 5 million electric vehicles

The National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC, in its Spanish acronym) sets the goal of having five million electric vehicles circulating in Spain by 2030, without difficulties to charge their batteries.

For 2023, the intermediate goal of 250,000 electric vehicles and 80,000 to 110,000 recharging points has been set.

Currently, there are an estimated 15,000 publicly accessible charging points.