Time is slipping away as Spain confronts a hard deadline for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. By August 22, big oil operators are expected to have chargers ready at a growing number of gas stations, a requirement tied to the Climate Change Act. Yet many companies doubt the target will be met, blaming the pace of electricity distributors and administrative processes rather than their own efforts.
The Climate Change Act, approved in May 2021, compels service stations operated by groups like Repsol, Cepsa, or BP, or those selling more than ten million liters annually (roughly 200 stations), to establish electric charging points. The mandate reached initial milestones this year with charging points planned to appear by February. Stations selling between 5 and 10 million liters, numbering 824 according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, received a longer timeline, extending through August.
In addition to these commitments, new stations opened during the prior year add 274 more locations to the tally, according to the Petroleum Operators Association. The overall rollout continues to expand, but the market is tracking a lot more slowly than planners anticipated, with some charging points in place but not powered due to missing permissions or green lights for operations. The grid is littered with delayed deployments, a situation described by Nacho Rabadán, spokesperson for the Spanish Confederation of Service Station Entrepreneurs, as a widespread disaster. The Collaboration for the Development and Promotion of Electric Mobility notes that around 6,800 charging points remain pending commissioning, a figure that shows a shortfall of about 8 percent from the 7,400 stations that were operational at the end of the previous year.
Key licensing hurdles persist. Public administrations must issue the necessary permits, while distribution companies must align with the evolving energy framework. Arturo Pérez de Lucas, managing director at the electric car association Aedive, confirms that the delays are felt on both sides—administrative bodies and power providers. Oil and electricity firms warn that even working charging points can erode consumer trust if outages or mismanagement occur, undermining confidence in the broader transition to electric mobility.
In practical terms, setting up a charging point can take months, yet operation hinges on permissions to run. The timeline can stretch from one to two years depending on whether the system is low voltage for slow charging or medium voltage for faster charging. A longer path exists for more robust charging infrastructure, potentially adding another year and a half to complete the process. The depth of formalities required by various authorities ends up slowing every phase of installation and commissioning.
As of the present, industry observers estimate around 25,106 charging points are publicly available in Spain. This figure sits far from Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan targets set by Brussels, which had aimed for eight to eleven times that number in years past. Aedive has proposed more realistic milestones: 23,000 charging points in 2022, 70,000 in 2025, and 255,000 by 2030. The average utilization of charging points is projected to be around 5.7 percent, slightly higher than the prior year, indicating that actual usage still has a long way to go to justify the expansion pace.
Pérez de Lucas adds a note about market readiness. The current fleet of electric vehicles and the pace of market adoption matter as much as the raw number of charging points. The National Energy and Climate Plan update places the count of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles at under 500,000, a fraction of the 2030 target, which government goals estimate at about 5.5 million. ANFAC, representing EV manufacturers, presents a slightly different view, estimating around 21,000 public charging points today and suggesting that charging time quality remains a crucial factor for the plan to reach its goal of quick top-ups between 15 and 27 minutes. The debate highlights a tension between infrastructure growth and real-world usage, with each side pushing for a more aggressive yet practical approach to meet long-term energy and climate objectives.
There is no single national census that captures all the complexities of charging infrastructure, including geographic distribution, fuel prices, or the exact availability of charging points. The situation is chaotic enough that the National Markets and Competition Commission has begun a public consultation through late September to collect ideas on the challenges facing facility development and the commissioning process for charging networks. The goal is to bring order to the market and guide policymakers, utilities, and station operators toward a coordinated solution that delivers reliable, accessible charging in a timely fashion.