The government’s Institute for Diversification and Energy Saving (IDEA) reports central and regional governments have jointly agreed on a new stimulation plan for the use of electric cars and sustainable mobility in Spain.
Announced last Thursday at the symposium ‘Summit 21. An impulse for Sustainable Mobility by Enterprises’, €400million will be invested in the infrastructure of charging points for electric cars. The same amount may come from the European Recovery Fund.
Plan Moves – government’s sustainable mobility plan
The money will help revise the existing ‘Plan Moves’, the government plan to promote efficient and sustainable mobility. This revised plan will roll out until at least 2023. The Ministry of Ecological Transition has €2billion from the European Recovery Fund to invest in electric mobility over three years.
The current Plan Moves, which, according to IDEA director Joan Groizard, is on target, will end after summer 2020. More than half the budget invested, around €100million, has already been spent by the autonomous regions on sustainable mobility. Catalonia and Madrid have spent their entire budget.
Greater safety for vulnerable road users
At the Summit 21 symposium, director Susana Gómez of the Spanish traffic service DGT, drew attention to the large number of traffic accidents in Spanish cities, where most vulnerable road users still die. The DGT, therefore, advocates a legal requirement for the mandatory use of a helmet and reflectors. They also want a minimum age for all types of vehicles with a maximum speed of 25 kilometers per hour.
Cooperation between government and private individuals
State Secretary María José Rallo of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, in her speech at the congress, emphasised the importance of the combined public and private forces to make transport in Spain more sustainable. In addition to uncertainty, the pandemic also offers new opportunities when it comes to sustainable mobility, which receives an important boost with resources from the European Recovery Fund. “Now is the perfect time to invest and transform the Spanish economy”, said Rallo.
