According to the Annual Report of the Observatory for Rural Decarbonization published by CIDE, only one in 1,000 vehicles is electric in the rural scope. That is, less than 8,000 of the 7.7 million (21% of the total) of the automotive park of these areas. The percentage in city - if not very far from abandoning fossil fuels - quadruple this figure: 4.1 per 1,000. This scarce penetration is added to a lack of interest in this solution in Spain emptied and a very aged fleet that does not seem to be electrified when it comes to renew it.
As with the population, the automotive park is aged. 77% have more than 10 years old and 28% of cars even double this age and leaves 20 years. For putting this in context, it means that almost 30% of cars were paid at pesetas.
The renewal begins to be a necessity and everything points to the fact that gasoline will continue to be imposed. Again according to the data of the report, 94% of the population in rural environment does not intend to acquire an electric vehicle and only 1% arise before two years. The remaining 5% sees it as an option, but more in the medium term (between two and five years). And partly that is the problem: it is not an option.
"Many of the people who live in these environments we use vehicles that are not cars; they are work tools that we use every day and there is also not so much electric vehicle that can work in rural areas," explains Antonio Saz, coordinator of Spain emptied. "They have to be cargo vehicles, with quite important capacities, and we also have to value to what extent they can be reliable in climatological environments that are not as friendly as the coast can be," he continues.
The positive counterpart of this low electrical adoption is that small changes would also be noted. "Electrification of only one part of these vehicles would allow these objectives and reversing the current situation," Leonardo Hervás, General Director of CIDE, argues. "It is essential to intensify public campaigns in those rural areas with a more aged automobile park and subject to a renovation over the next few years," he warns, at least if he wants to reach five million electric vehicles in 2030.
On the other hand, there are the difficulties related to infrastructure, both from the point of view of the electricity future - public and private recharge, for example - as from the present fossil that depends enormously from the car. "The rural environment occupies a relevant part of the Spanish surface, approximately 84%, and there are approximately 7.5 million inhabitants, which represents 16% of the Spaniards," contextualizes Hervás.
This implies that in the rural environment access infrastructures and services is more complicated and make the people who live in these areas depend much more than the car. On average, they must travel 23 kilometers to reach these services - in urban municipalities. The average is two kilometers - and this has an impact on emissions. According to the manager, it would be necessary to electrify "at least" 13% of the rural fleet and this goal "is far from the current context and figures observed in the non-rural environment."
Recharge is another of the challenges and, again, not part of a situation that invites optimism: there is little public infrastructure and only 14% of those who have an electric vehicle in rural Spain are proposed to install one of them in their home . "The reduction of the initial economic effort needed to install its own recharge infrastructure by the rural population may result in a key penetration factor of the electric vehicle in rural areas, typically with income lower than urban areas," says the decarbonization report.
"As long as there is no major deployment or a lot is helped with those own and particular supply points, this deployment will be very difficult," warns Antonio Saz.
SAZ also points out that there are other problems in which the placement of the implantation bites the tail, as is that of technical services. "The workshops we have per square kilometer are many less than in the city," he recalls. If they do not adapt to the electrical needs while these are emerging, they will slow down their arrival. But, at the same time, if you advance this offer and arrive earlier of time, you will not have a lawsuit with which to amortize your investment.
In this sense, SAZ also considers it important to make visible the risk of precipitating the electrical implementation has a risk, at least if it is promoted with the penalty of fossil fuels. Thus, for example, if diesel is taxed, it would be a problem because "in the rural environment and Spain emptied there are many gasoil heating that will be penalized."
"In this territory, a reconversion is not viable to heat pumps: they are large houses with temperatures abroad near ten degrees below zero," he explains. In the case of vehicles, something similar could happen. "In the big ones, who take a lot of weight, we will take a long time to take that leap to the electric or hydrogen vehicle," he regrets it.
"We all believe that in this revolution through renewables we have to go to electricity consumption instead of fossil consumption," grants, but have problems with how: "What needs to be done is to give viability to things and facilitate that transit".
Date Of Update: 19 October 2021, 22:18
