Basque Country, Catalonian and Valencian-based companies are the overwhelming beneficiaries of government funds for electric car manufacture in Spain, according to figures presented by Spain’s Industry Minister.
Around three-quarters of the €793 million tranche Spain’s Ministry of Industry has handed out to boost the manufacture of electric vehicles has already gone to the three regions. Of the total funds, some of which are subsidies and others loans, the Basque Country will receive the most overall, around €209.1 million, followed by Catalonia (€198.7 million) and Valencia (€186 million).
Between them, these three regions will receive approximately €593 million, 74 percent of the total funds available. Madrid and Andalusia also receive the greatest share of public subsidies for the installation of electric charging infrastructure.
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The funds, part of the Electric and Connected Vehicle programme in Spain’s Strategic Projects for Recovery and Economic Transformation (PERTE), which you can read more about herecome from the wider EU Recovery Fund pool.
Electric vehicle subsidies, which the Spanish government plans to spend around €4.295 billion on, have already been authorised for around half of this amount, €2.069 billion, with a little over a billion (€1.3 billion) already made available to companies.
Spain’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, presented a report on PERTE funds in her last Council of Ministers meeting.
According to the figures, the five regions (Catalonia, Madrid, Valencia, Andalusia and the Basque Country), which Basque Country aside, are four of Spain’s five most populous regions. They are receiving the vast majority of the funds overall, whether it be for the actual manufacture of electric vehicles and other technology, or for the purchase and installation of charging points.
The Ministry of Industry has dished out funds for 10 projects to develop and manufacture electric vehicles so far, the majority awarded to projects led by large car manufacturers such as Seat, Mercedes, and Renault, but supported by small businesses across Spain.
Recharging
Catalonia and Valencia are also big beneficiaries of subsidies to encourage the purchase of electric cars and installation of charging points, along with Madrid and Andalusia.
Taking advantage of her last appearance in the government press room before beginning her campaign for the Madrid mayor, Maroto urged the regional governments to “streamline the procedures for accessing this aid”.
So far, €63.9 million for car purchases has gone to Catalonia, €48.7 million to the Valencia region and €48 million to Madrid. They are followed by Andalusia (€35.1 million) and Galicia (€24 million).
Catalonia and Madrid, which received €35.4 million, are the two largest recipients of aid for recharging infrastructure. They are joined at the top by Andalusia (€34.4 million) and the Valencia region (€34.3 million). The next largest recipient is Castilla-La Mancha, which has received €22.8 million for electric charging points.
The distribution of charging points is still uneven in Spain, with just four regions accounting for 60 percent of the points according to statistics published by the Spanish Association of Car and Truck Manufacturers (ANFAC) in 2022.
Catalonia has the most charging points in Spain with 3,549, followed by Valencia with 1,661 and Madrid with 1,601.
La Rioja, Cantabria and Extremadura have the least.
Pricey purchase?
Despite the dolling out government funds in the next few years, as of 2023 buying an electric car still remains expensive in Spain.
Reyes Maroto herself recently acknowledged that buying an electric vehicle in Spain is still “very expensive,” but promised price reductions over the coming decade so that by 2035, the year the EU has proposed banning the sale of combustion vehicles, electric alternatives will not only be cheaper but accessible without “any problems”.
According to 2022 data available from Unespa, the Spanish Association of Insurers and Reinsurers, there are a total of 674,000 electric and hybrid cars circulating in Spain. However, the real figure is thought to be even higher.
The average price of an electric car in 2022 was between €26,105 and €34,326, according to the website Marca.
The price of an electric car, however, greatly depends on the region you buy it in. The most expensive region to buy a second-hand electric car last year was Navarre, where it would have cost you an average of €35,579, followed by the Canary Islands (€31,469) and Valencia (€29,073).
According to ElectricarVO, La Rioja is the cheapest region to buy a second-hand electric car at €22,382, followed by the Balearic Islands at €23,148 and then Andalusia at €24,329.