I still don’t quite understand the attraction of buying an electric vehicle in Spain. Neither am I at all sure of the environmental advantages, particularly when it comes to the disposal of those heavy electric batteries, many of which end up in landfill, and I’m certainly less than confident that, unless I went to the expense of installing my own charging point, the charge that an electric vehicle holds would be able to provide me with seamless motoring for more than a day or two, even around the local area.
Between 2018 and 2021, 18 charging stations were installed for hybrid and electric vehicles in the Orihuela municipality, in anticipation of the possible boom in the purchase of electric cars.
Seemingly, we were told, diesel and petrol vehicles had their days numbered. However, haste is not always a good advisor and things were not done at all well by the previous councils.
Of the 18 charging points installed, all to great fanfare, many were no longer working within just a few months, some due to technical problems, others because they had not been certified or correctly registered.
Now, however, we are told that the problem has been finally resolved by the Departments of Infrastructure and the Environment, with 16 of the 18 public points in the municipal area repaired and back in service.
Cllr Valverde told the press last week, “Despite them being in high demand, it has been difficult to put them back into operation, given that it has been necessary to solve the technical requirements and obtain certifications from Industry, which they lacked, but, in five months, we have got them all operational once again”.
Good new that obviously is for the owners of hybrid and electric vehicles, but with a charge that will transport you no more than about 300 km, and the use of just these 18 charging stations located in the ‘different strategic places’ of the Orihuela City centre, the Orihuela Costa and in the municipality’s 24 districts, covering an area of 510 km2, until such time as there are far, far more charging points at my disposal, I will continue to question the attraction of buying an electric vehicle in this part of Spain.
