THE SMART WAY TO TAKE MALLORCA ELECTRIC AND FAST
THE eMallorca Experience Week continued yesterday evening in Inca with its eForum, a platform for the exchange of ideas and debates focused on the promotion of Sustainable Energies and Industries, Sustainable Tourism and the Circular Economy. With the topic Emobility, the challenges and opportunities, key international speakers included Markus Dold, the CEO of eMallorca Technology, a company that builds various fast-charging stations for electric vehicles spread throughout the island, who spoke about 100% electric mobility, the future of Mallorca and the steps to get the world to a better place.
Dold said that the main aim of his company is to change, or to be part of the change, and to help get islands, like Mallorca, ready for the future of mobility.
“We want to help the island take the steps forward to making the world a better place and we're doing that by creating mega charging parks by using smart charging,” he explained.
eMallorca Technology has already started, having invested several million euros in three mega charging parks in Mallorca - two in and around Palma and a third in Algaida - and they are using the experience they have gathered from having already done the same in Corsica.
As a result of the mega super charging network they have created in Corsica, 35 percent of the car rental fleet, which we know can lead by example, is now electric and that is the approach Dold is taking in Mallorca. “In the peak of the summer, there are some 100,000 hire cars on the roads in Mallorca, but very few will be electric, so we are creating an electric ecosystem which will make expanding the electric car hire fleet more attractive and more economical.
“By the end of this year we intend to have 400 charging points across the island. By the end of 2024 our aim is for at least 10 percent of the rental car fleet to be electric and by 2025 35 percent. It's feasible and possible, we have done it in Corsica. It's not only extremely positive for the environment - quieter cars which don't smell and pump out emissions - it also makes financial sense for hire car companies which for years have been upgrading and renewing their fuel vehicles every year. Electric cars will run for years, the batteries last much longer so there is not that need to renew fleets every year. So it's a win-win situation for tourists, residents, the local community, the environment and the hire car companies.
“What we've taken into account is that the electricity grid, which is some 30 years old, was never built with meeting the needs of electric cars in mind and in many cases, the current grid cannot cope. But our smart charging ecosystem takes that into account. Our mega charging parks are fitted with batteries which are solar-powered, for example, so we're not dependent on the national grid; we're self sufficient, if you like. Plus, away from our charging parks, we're setting up slightly slower AC charging points at golf courses, beaches, restaurants etc., where people using hire cars may not be in such a rush that they need their vehicle charged in 20 minutes, which is what our super chargers do, so there is less demand on the batteries, which are able to charge vehicles overnight at hotels, for example. And as we've already seen at a hotel where we've installed our solar-fuelled charging points, when the hotel is closed during the winter, the energy generated can be used by the local community. So, the more hotels and supermarkets which decide to join our network can also generate clean, zero-emissions power for the local neighbourhood. This is one of the first steps towards the future of an electric and sustainable Mallorca for everyone.”