The Iberdrola Group will play an important role in the Future: Fast Forward consortium, led by SEAT and the Volkswagen Group, which today presented its request for funding to the Connected Electric Vehicle (VEC) EU funds, the most important round of funding from the European Next Generation funds for economic recovery and transformation.
Iberdrola’s participation will promote sustainability throughout the manufacturing process of electric vehicles, significantly reducing CO2 emissions in their production processes. The company’s contribution will focus on three areas:
- The decarbonization of the SEAT factories in Martorell and Volkswagen in Pamplona, electrifying their industrial processes to make them more competitive and avoid the emission of greenhouse gases, with clean and more efficient technologies.
- Development of photovoltaic self-consumption projects, which will make it possible to use these renewable resources to supply clean energy to the electric vehicle manufacturing plants.
- Development of R&D&I projects to develop innovative smart charging solutions and to test second-life uses for the batteries of these vehicles.
This initiative, which includes a total of 62 companies, covers the entire electric vehicle value chain.
Iberdrola is committed to the electrification of transport as part of its transition strategy towards a decarbonized economy, as a key lever for reducing emissions. The group has a sustainable mobility plan, with an investment of 150 million euros, which provides for the installation of nearly 150,000 high-efficiency recharging points, both in homes and businesses, as well as on urban roads, in cities and on major highways.
Iberdrola is aware of the need for coordinated and effective action with the main agents involved to promote electromobility in Spain. In this regard, the company has already completed more than 50 infrastructure deployment agreements with administrations, institutions, companies, service stations, dealers and electric vehicle manufacturers.
The company’s public charging network for electric vehicles already has 2,500 charging points. Thus, the company’s chargers have reached 900 locations in Spain, after incorporating more than a hundred new places with access to charging points in the first quarter of the year.
Of the total network installed by Iberdrola, 45% corresponds to fast or ultra-fast charging points. In fact, Iberdrola is the electricity company with the most chargers of this type, which currently represent 20% of the total fast public charging network in Spain.
The company was the first company in Spain to sign up to The Climate Group’s EV100 initiative, with the aim of accelerating the transition to electric mobility, committing to electrify its entire fleet of vehicles and to facilitate charging for the staff of its businesses in Spain and the United Kingdom by 2030.
Quotes:
Raquel Blanco, Director of Smart Mobility at Iberdrola said: “This project is a magnificent example of the work we do at Iberdrola so that sustainability becomes embedded in the entire life cycle of the vehicle, not only in the final use but also during manufacturing.
“We help to decarbonize the manufacturing processes of electric vehicles with technologies that use clean energy efficiently.
“Iberdrola is leading the development of public charging infrastructure in Spain, with a focus on fast and ultra-fast technologies. This infrastructure accompanies the penetration of electric vehicles and, of course, has clean energy, so that we build “zero emissions” mobility from start to finish, from the manufacture of the vehicle itself to its use in our cities and on our roads, closing the virtuous circle of sustainable mobility”.