Believe it or not, charging your electric or plug-in hybrid car in Madrid can be free, or almost free, with this trick that we are going to reveal to you today. It is true that charging will not be at zero cost, but it will be much cheaper than at any normal public charging station.
Home charging is the best way to reduce operating costs for an electric or plug-in hybrid car. They are the most economical recharges you will be able to make for your car. Therefore, planning in this type of vehicles is the key to getting the most out of their autonomy and efficiency.
And charging on the road is not economical in most cases. You expose yourself to abusive rates that can ruin all the savings that a plug-in vehicle can bring you. This is why charging at public stations is only recommended in cases of emergency or on long trips where there is no other recharging option.
On the other hand, there are apps where you can check the cost of charging at public stations and save a few euros if you plan your trip to use the cheapest chargers that offer good charging power.
In Madrid you can charge your electric or plug-in hybrid car for free
However, today we want to talk to you about a trick to charge your electric car in Madrid totally free. Well, or almost free, because recharging has no cost, although you will have to pay a small sum of money to reach these public chargers.
These are the charging points installed in the IFEMA Madrid parking lot, specifically the parking lot of the fairgrounds. This car park is open from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., Monday to Friday, weekends and holidays that coincide with activities or events that take place in the IFEMA pavilions.
In these car parks there are several charging points, of which at least two offer a charging power of 22 kW, considered semi-fast charging, while another two are 50 kW, both Combo and CHAdeMO, and a fifth is of 43 kW, the latter all considered fast charging.
The most interesting thing, as you can see in the images that illustrate this article, is that they are free chargers. All of them, so recharging your electric or plug-in hybrid car will be at zero cost.
But there is fine print in this trick…
But there is something you should keep in mind, and that is that access to the parking does have a cost. IFEMA Madrid, as published on its website, has several rates for its parking lots.
In the case of parking at the fairgrounds, the prices are:
Real-time rate: 2.85 euros/hour (payment in installments per minute) and it is cheaper for stays longer than 4.5 hours, although exactly how much is not specified. Prepaid rate: 14 euros/day Maximum daily rate: 20 euros
Therefore, if you enter the IFEMA Madrid car park and charge for one hour at 50 kWh of power, the cost of that recharge will have been only 2.85 euros, or in other words, less than half of the cost offered by other public stations.
This trick is especially interesting if you are going to pass through that area on your next trip, if you need to make a last-minute recharge, or if you work and/or live near the IFEMA Madrid exhibition center.