How do recharge points work?

The present and future of vehicle traffic is oriented towards environmental sustainability and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. For this, it is necessary to promote electric vehicles and ensure the population charging points for electric cars strategically placed to allow them the greatest possible autonomy.

Only then will it be possible to expand the use of this type of vehicle, especially when the European institutions propose to ban the sale of combustion cars from 2035.

Therefore, the transition from fuels such as diesel and gasoline to the electrification of the car fleet requires these charging points. This will increase the number of electric vehicles in Spain, which, according to an analysis by the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (ANFAC), represented 0.54% of the Spanish mobile phone fleet in August 2022. In more precise figures, they are about 150,000 cars in total.

So, since we currently have charging solutions for electric carsHow many charging points are there in Spain, where are they and how do they work?

We will answer these questions.

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Operation of charging points for electric cars

?How charging points for electric vehicles work? Its operation is simple. But first, you have to explain electric car definition: It is a vehicle (car, truck, motorcycle, etc.) propelled by one or more electric motors. In this way, there is no combustion and no pollution. The electrical energy is stored in the batteries that the vehicle has built-in.

The reduction of polluting gases is what characterizes these cars, as well as the autonomy, which can reach up to 600 kilometers. Even so, progress in its use must be linked to an ever-increasing network of recharging points in order to reach the maximum profitability of the electric car.

These points work in this way, very simply for plug-in vehiclesmay it be electric or hybrid.

Connecting the connector to the charging point

First, you need to connect the vehicle connector to the charging point and wait for the battery to be fully charged. This happens because the point is connected to the electrical network, so electricity reaches the car through the following elements.

Elements of charging points

  • transformation center: connects the charging point to mains voltage, enabling low voltage charging for safe recharging.
  • power converter: This element is the one that adapts the electricity from alternating current to direct current, which the batteries accept.
  • charging point: the electricity, converted from alternating current to direct current, is then directed to the charging point and from there to the vehicle we have connected.

How long does it take to charge an electric car?

Just as not all cell phones charge equally quickly, the same happens with charging points for electric cars. Currently there are three recharge times.

Slow loading points

Slow charging points take more than 5 hours to charge cars. In fact, they are the most popular today in Spain, as we will mention later.

Semi-fast charging points

The semi-fast charging points allow electric cars to be recharged in about two hours with a power of 22 kW.

Fast charging points

Second, fast charging points take 40 minutes to recharge, reaching a power of more than 50 kW.

Ultra-fast charging points

Thirdly, ultra-fast charging points only take a maximum of 13 minutes to recharge electric cars, as they have a power of up to 150 kW.

How many charging points for electric vehicles are there in Spain?

As I said before, to facilitate the transition from the combustion car to the electric car, policies and strategies are needed that include a map of recharging points all over the country, just like gas stations.

In any case,How many charging points for electric vehicles are there in Spain? At this point? According to him Map of public access recharging infrastructures in Spain of ANFAC, the current infrastructure is insufficient there 11,547 charging points throughout the countrythe majority in Catalonia (3,282), followed by the Community of Madrid (1,408).

This figure is still far from the proposed objective for the year 2030, when it is proposed that there will be 340,000. In addition to the fact that the study warns of the low power of electric car charging points in Spain: 83% are slow charging, below 22 kW of power.

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To this current context, it should be added that, as stated in Royal Decree 1053/2014 of December 12, 2021, Complementary Technical Instruction (ITC) BT-52 indicates that a charging station for electric cars must be built in public parking lots. for every 40 available parking spaces.

Therefore, due to the ease of operation of charging points for electric cars, this is not a barrier to its further implementation in Spain, both internally (for example, in parking lots) and in gas stations that are already there for refueling. So the way it works is not an obstacle for it to cease to exist electrolinearwhich is the term by which electric vehicle charging service stations are known.

So there is still a long way to go to achieve the widest possible network and, always taking into account geopolitics and its implication in the increase in electricity prices that we are currently experiencing and the progress in the electrification of the mobile fleet in Spain.