2022 has beaten a new record in the use of the public charging grid operated by EDP in Spain and Portugal. Last year, 488 000 charges were carried out in the Iberian Peninsula, three times more than the previous year. When substituting the motor vehicle by the electric one, drivers avoided the emission of 5 000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Using the public grid of EDP’s normal, fast, and ultra-fast chargers, these electric vehicles recharged 8 GWh of electricity, enough energy to travel more than 45 million kilometers without CO2 emissions. These drivers could have travelled more than 1 100 around the planet, or more than 70 000 times between Lisbon and Madrid without consuming fossil fuels.

In 2022, the company accelerated its commitment with the development of a public charging grid to be part of the unprecedent growth of electric mobility in Europe, and, specifically, in Spain and Portugal, where electric vehicles’ sales beat a record throughout the year. EDP has added more than 3 500 points to the ones already operational or developping in the Iberian Peninsula.

Lisbon, Porto and Setúbal were the Portuguese cities where electric vehicles recharged more kilowatts per hour, while in Spain they were Gijón, Madrid and Oviedo (in this same order), out of the 150 Spanish cities with EDP chargers.

Important partnerships with agents that are promoting sustainable mobility also contributed to this growth: in Spain, EDP will be developing, together with Decathlon, a grid with more than 400 charging points in stores of the sports’ company, and will install chargers in more than 40 Petroprix petrol stations. In Portugal, EDP has continued to develop its grid with partners that ensure strategic locations, and has registered a growth with the SME, hiring more than 350 charging points around the country.

“The creation of a solid infrastructure with charging points is a necessary condition to accelerate the adoption of electric mobility. This has been an important goal to EDP, that counts today with a network of more than 3 500 developing charging points in the Iberian Peninsula. This has also been a priority in the debate about the politics that EDP has tried to discuss at a European level with the corresponding industry associations, like Charge Up Europe”, states Vera Pinto Pereira, EDP’s commercial advisor.

Last week, EDP was chosen once again member of Charge Up Europe’s management board, an association that has contributed to the much-needed debate about the development of sustainable mobility and the public politics needed to accelerate the charging infrastructure. This set of measures, which is currently being debated, includes the charging points’ goals that will be mandatory in each Member State, as well as other novelties that will improve the users’ experience.