The largest fast-charging station for electric vehicles in southern Europe is now in operation in Elche with chargers of up to 400 kW. Drivers will be able to recharge the batteries of their electric cars in just five minutes.
The Mayor of Elche, Carlos González, along with the Minister of Territorial Policy, Public Works and Mobility, Arcadi España; the general manager of Porsche Ibérica, Tomás Villén; and the global director of Smart Mobility at Iberdrola, Raquel Blanco, inaugurated the station, located in the vicinity of the A-70; next to the airport; at the Alicante Trade Fair Institution (IFA) and Elche Business Park.
The station has 16 recharging places that will be available to both private drivers and shared vehicle fleets and other types of companies, which will be able to recharge their electric vehicles. In addition, the facility has a nominal power of four megawatts and four chargers of up to 400 kW and 12 of 200 kW.
This initiative is added to the commitment of the municipal government for electric mobility and for those technologies and systems that allow the intelligent use of means of displacement. In this sense, the mayor highlighted that “it is a pioneering and exemplary project that is going to become a reference for the installation of new stations in other parts of the Valencian Community, Spain and the European Union”.
The mayor congratulated Iberdrola and Porsche Ibérica “for developing this initiative in Elche. “The city itself likes to be linked to avant-garde and innovative actions like this one”. For González, this hub represents “a firm commitment to the electric car, aligned with one of the main industrial transformation projects that is being promoted in our country and in the EU and that is part of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, whose objective is to create in Spain the necessary ecosystem for the development and manufacture of electric vehicles connected to the network”.
“Electromobility represents a historic opportunity to modernise the automotive industry, which is a strategic economic sector due to its weight in national wealth, in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and in employment,” said González, who pointed out that Spain is the second largest European vehicle manufacturer and in turn the ninth worldwide. Likewise, the mayor has indicated that this initiative will allow progress towards sustainable mobility, decarbonise mobility and, therefore, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector, which is responsible for 29% of emissions.
“In addition, this project, which is a key vector to achieve the goal of achieving climate neutrality in 2050, also makes us a benchmark and strengthens our commitment to sustainable mobility, framed in our city strategy that aspires to be European Green Capital in 2030”, affirmed the mayor.
For his part, Arcadi España highlighted the importance of public-private collaboration to advance sustainable mobility and has recognised the great work of Elche City Council for greening the Mediterranean Corridor.
According to Raquel Blanco, “these are innovative facilities, suitable for any type of electric car, which allow batteries to be charged in very short times and which, together with the network of recharging points that the company has in operation in the rest of Spain, represent a definitive commitment to the decarbonisation of mobility in our country”.
In addition, Blanco has reported that Iberdrola has partnered with Porsche to install a total of 35 ultra-fast charging stations in Spain in order to bring electric mobility closer to any electric vehicle user. Within this collaboration, the installation of 15 innovative recharging points in strategic nodes, with more than 300 kW of unit power, is also planned.
These ultra-fast recharging hubs join the network that Iberdrola already has of more than 2,500 public Recharging Points nationwide, of which 450 are in the Valencian Community.
The energy supplied at all the recharging points promoted by Iberdrola is 100% green, from renewable generation sources, with a guarantee of origin certificate (GdOs).
Likewise, Iberdrola’s global director of Smart Mobility thanked Elche City Council and the public institutions for their support in this initiative.
The director of Porsche has listed some of the commitments that the company has with the environment, such as being experts in electrification, the commitment to the development of high load for all users of electric vehicles or being partners of Iberdrola.
