Spain: in 2011 private buyers will have purchased 10 electric cars

Saying that the electric car has no demand in Spain is like beating a dead horse. Yet month after month we come across delivery figures for these vehicles that are frankly absurd, representing not even a fraction of the aspirations held just a couple of years ago. The funds the government has earmarked for mass electrification have barely been used; to make matters worse, adding insult to injury, only 10 units have been sold to private buyers.

The figures suggesting that around 300 electric vehicles will be sold in total this year are nothing to celebrate, since 290 of them will go to government bodies and town councils. The real take-off will happen when we are able to announce these same figures as sales to private customers, people like you and me, the everyday consumer who drives the market.

Of the 49 million euros allocated to electric vehicles, I would like to know what will become of most of the funds a year from now, when we have to announce that the target has not been met. Perhaps it would be better to use a large part of that money to make it easier for people to buy a new car, with another 2000E-style plan.

And if there is no will or no way to organise another 2000E plan, what would be better? Keep betting on the utopia of the electric car, or finally get the market moving? Used cars have generated a movement of 1.7 million units sold in 2011. Why not help people buy used cars less than 10 years old, as another alternative to pull the industry out of the hole?

Source | El Mundo