Spain has 2 issues hindering the adoption of electric vehicles. One is that according to statistics, Spain is the EU country with the largest number of apartment dwellers. Second, the country's charging infrastructure still lags behind the overall level of Europe.
The "Electric Vehicle Barometer" published in February 2022 showed that Spain scored 9 out of 100 for charging stations, compared to the European average of 18. According to calculations, Spain currently only has more than 13,000 charging piles, while the target for 2030 is 340,000.
In this case, it is not surprising to turn to street lights to solve these two major problems. Street lights are plastered on public roads and are already connected to the grid.
British companies Ubitricity and Chargy are pioneers in this field. Ubitricity has more than 5,000 street light charging points, although most are located in the UK, but recently signed a contract to install 200 in Berlin, and Chargy has 900 street lighting charging points.
The main problem faced by this kind of charging pile is that the street light cannot provide three-phase electricity, so it cannot be charged quickly. The upcoming model in the German capital has 3.7 kW.
This means that the charging time will reach several hours. Ubitricity's press release states that the charges are similar to those of travel providers, and that there is a QR code attached to the charging pile to use the service without registration. Type 2 charging cable is not included with the service.
Ubitricity aims to install 50,000 charging stations by 2025. In 2021, Shell Oil acquired the company to drive sustainability and emissions reductions.
