E-mobility In The Mediterranean
This policy brief is built on the analysis of background documentation, in-depth interviews with the Urban Transports Community (UTC), a dedicated online survey to get the insights of other international experts and desktop research from where to collect key information and the best practices on E-Mobility arising from Mediterranean cities. There is a range of measures that are being employed across the EU and in Mediterranean cities to reduce emissions in the transportation sector, including investing in and prioritising active mobility (walking and cycling), public transport and electric mobility. Electric vehicles (hereby also spelt as e-vehicles and EVs) are a key part of reducing the levels of and effects of pollution produced by the transport sector, consequently, the European Commission’s “Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy” placed them at the core of Europe’s effort to decarbonise urban mobility and the transport sector, setting ambitious targets and milestones in 2030 and 2050. The roadmap toward the decarbonisation of urban mobility in many European cities has already carried out important investments in this sector that matches the magnitude of the expected benefits. The e-vehicle industry has not been immune to the pandemic. Due to the global supply chain disruption, and the war in Ukraine, the planned timeline of production has been slowed down, delaying the delivery period of many electrified models up to 1 year. In addition, it is worth mentioning that reaching price parity between internal combustion vehicles and e-vehicles has become harder than it seemed in 2021: the rising prices for nickel, cobalt, and other metals, crucial to the production of e-vehicle batteries, are contributing to slowing the path toward the goal of producing electric batteries at USD 100 per kWh. In Europe, the Netherlands, France, and Germany have established 70% of all current e-charging points in the region, even though, together, they only represent 23% of Europe’s geographical extent. On the other hand, Mediterranean countries, which are far from the Northern European figures, are nonetheless setting very ambitious targets to deploy electric charging infrastructure in the medium term and to meet the known EU goals: in particular, Italy has set a target of 32,000 fast and ultra-fast chargers by 20301 and Spain expects to have 100,000 public e-charging stations by 2023 – something that will be supported by a bespoke package of impulse measures announced in December 20212. The large investments made to support the e-mobility industry are a good example of the strategic importance it has for the member states of the European Union: investments in battery plants to underpin the EV production industry (so as not to depend on foreign countries such as China), the great commitment to the electrification of public transport and the disincentivising of combustion vehicle’s use represent priorities in the roadmap to sustainable mobility of the vast majority of EU national governments. The recovery funds articulated by the Next Generation program3 allow countries like Italy and Spain to fund strategic projects aimed at building new infrastructure for the development of e-mobility and modernising the urban mobility sector. On 23 February 2022, the Spanish government awarded 1,000 million euros to 170 municipalities for this specific purpose as part of the Next Generation recovery plan.
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