Orihuela City Council has announced plans to repair and upgrade its municipal electric vehicle charging network following a technical audit of all 19 charging points across the municipality.
While the investment is welcome, the scale of the existing network is deeply disappointing. Orihuela has a registered population of around 100,000 people, yet provides only 19 municipal charging points—approximately one for every 5,260 residents. Worse still, many of these facilities are regularly reported to be out of order, further reducing an already inadequate service.
The planned improvements include repairing charging equipment, replacing electrical components, upgrading control panels and conducting technical inspections to ensure the installations operate correctly.
Environment Councillor Noelia Grao said the council was working to maintain municipal infrastructure, improve services and promote sustainable mobility. However, repairing a small and unreliable network should be regarded as a basic responsibility, rather than a significant advance in environmental policy.
If Orihuela genuinely wants residents to switch to electric vehicles, motorists need confidence that public chargers will be available and functioning when required. Nineteen charging points spread across a large municipality—including Orihuela city, numerous outlying districts and the heavily populated Orihuela Costa—are simply insufficient.
The project has been allocated €18,094.34, including VAT, with the work expected to be completed within 30 calendar days of the contract being awarded.
Restoring the existing chargers is necessary, but it must be followed by a serious expansion of the network. Without substantially more reliable charging facilities, the council’s stated commitment to sustainable mobility will remain difficult to take seriously.
