HATCHET JOB ON SPAIN’S EV

Spain's green scheme stalls as only 16 electric cars are sold; Stated goal of having 2,000 electric vehicles on Spanish roads by the end of year will be unachievable
Giles Tremlett, 9 August 2010 (UK Guardian)

[This article is propaganda. It declares Spain’s EV market “failed” before most EVs are really available, it declares goals “unachievable” when the reach for them has not yet begun, and it says there are only 16 EVs when another source says there are over 500. The only thing it gets right is that times are just as tough for EVs and the New Energies as for everybody else.]

"…Spain's green agenda…[foresaw that] within four years a million electric cars would take to the roads, with battery top-up points sprouting up in petrol stations and disused telephone booths across the country…"

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"But [new] figures…[show the] green dream is some way from realisation: in the first seven months of the year, only 16 electric cars were registered for use on Spanish roads. Even that was a sixteenfold increase on 2009, when just one electric car was registered.

"Although the plan also includes subsidies for hybrid electric and petrol-driven cars, makers said they only planned to sell half a dozen of these in Spain this year…That makes the stated goal of having 2,000 electric vehicles circulating by the end of this year almost unachievable. Next year's target had been to get 20,000 electric and hybrid cars on the road."

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"The failed attempt to kickstart Spain's electric car market comes despite pledges of 80m euros of subsidies for those who buy by the end of next year – with the government funding 20% of the purchase, or up to 6,000 euros, on each car… Spain's lack of enthusiasm for electric cars emerged as austerity measures reduce the funding of other green projects. Solar-generated electricity "farms" are likely to be worst hit, with subsidies for new solar projects to be slashed by 25-45%…"

[Wind Power and Electric Vehicles, Spain:] "The figures are similar to what happened in their day to personal computers or mobile phones…The first models are expensive and with few extras and sales are slow. But somewhere around 2012 dozens of electric vehicles with lithium batteries and at a lower price will reach the market – and the recharging infrastructure will be in place."