The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced during the closing of the IV Anfac Forum that in the coming weeks he will review aid for the purchase of electric cars and the installation of charging points.
It was the most anticipated participation of the IV Anfac Forum. Throughout the day, all the actors in the sector who participated, starting with Wayne Griffiths, president of Anfac and CEO of Seat and Cupra, have appealed to the position that the Government should take to boost sales of electric cars and expand the charger network.
Currently, Spain is at the bottom of Europe in terms of sales of electrified cars. The European average is 22.3%, while Spain barely achieves 12%. Given this, Griffiths states that “we have to turn the situation around”, while adding that “we cannot have opinions from ministers against private or electric vehicles.”
The four demands of the automobile industry to the new government of Pedro Sánchez
During the closing, Pedro Sánchez, President of the Government, also wanted to point out his concern about the sales of electric cars. The president has indicated that “we are not satisfied” with the rate of sales of these vehicles, so, “from the Government we think that much more can be done.” That movement will be to review aid for electric cars.
Specifically, Pedro Sánchez has announced that “in the coming weeks” he plans to “review, strengthen and streamline” the public aid program for the acquisition of electrified vehicles and the installation of battery charging points. To do this, he will meet with the sector, where he has highlighted the role of Anfac.
Sánchez is satisfied with the different Moves
Although the Moves III Plan has been highly criticized by the automotive sector, considering it insufficient to boost the sale of electric cars, Pedro Sánchez has expressed satisfaction with the injection of this aid.
According to Sánchez, the ‘Moves III’ aid program has already allocated close to 1,000 million euros to the autonomous communities to encourage the acquisition of electric vehicles. In addition, the ‘Moves fleets’ plan is serving 54 renewal programs for as many fleets, while in 2023 there will be more than 30,000 charging points, with a growth of 40% compared to the previous year.
He also explained that the Government has already mobilized all the European funds planned within the Strategic Project for the recovery and economic transformation of the electric and connected vehicle. “To date we have mobilized the total of the planned funds. More than 2,280 million euros granted for more than 700 projects and 550 companies, located in all the autonomous communities,” highlights Sánchez.
Among the projects to which this money has been allocated, he has highlighted the 6,000 million invested in the battery plants in Extremadura and Sagunto and the promotion of the industrial value chain of electric and connected vehicles in the Ford, Stellantis, Seat and Renault.
Resolution of 10 provisional projects of block B of the Perte VEC
During his speech, Sánchez also announced the resolution of the first 10 provisional projects related to line B, linked to the industrial value chain of the electric vehicle, of the second call of the Perte VEC, endowed with 170 million euros of public aid. and that will allow an industrial mobilization of 500 million euros.
Specifically, line B of the Perte VEC II, which has budgeted 344 million euros in subsidies and 215 million in loans, seeks to promote investment plans for the industrial value chain of the electric and connected vehicle, its systems, subsystems and components, in addition to certain auxiliary infrastructure systems necessary for its deployment.
The first 15 resolutions of this line were expected on February 7, as announced by the Ministry of Industry, but it was this Tuesday, by the President of the Government, when the first batch of resolutions were announced, with 10 projects.
Finally, the president detailed that, after the resolution of this second call, “in the coming months” the third phase will be completed. The fourth will be resolved in the last quarter of the year – according to the calendar described by Sánchez -, with more than 1,250 million euros of European funds linked to the second phase of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.