Amsterdam-based Fastned, a provider of a fast-charging network for electric vehicles, announced on Tuesday that it has expanded its operations into Spain.
The company has signed a contract for its first fast-charging station in the country.
The yellow canopies will first arrive in Spain in Casarrubuelos, a municipality of Madrid, located on the busy A42 motorway that connects Madrid with Toledo.
The station has eight chargers, each with power of up to 400kW, where every day hundreds of EV drivers can charge their batteries.
In addition to this location, Fastned has six more stations coming up in Spain. The details will be communicated soon, says the company.
In Spain, the majority of chargers are located in the centre of large cities, claims the company.
To encourage more drivers to transition to electric cars, a robust network of fast charging stations is needed along motorways and in the outskirts of cities.
Fastned is ready to support this transition and help Spain reach its national targets for decarbonising mobility.
“Entering the Spanish market is a milestone for Fastned. Spain still has a long way to go in terms of electric mobility. At the same time, 2023 has been a good year for electric vehicle uptake in Spain: 70% more electric vehicles were sold in 2023 compared to the previous year. With the Spanish government controlling the operation of many motorways, they have a great opportunity to be at the forefront of implementing the important European AFIR regulation using competitive tenders and issuing concessions for charging stations along the core motorway network of Spain,” says Michiel Langezaal, CEO Fastned.
Fastned’s Q4 2023’s performance
In other news, Fastned announced that it delivered 32GWh of renewable energy during Q4 2023, an increase of 79 per cent compared to a year ago, more than half of what was delivered in 2022.Â
The Amsterdam company says the charging revenue increased by 44 per cent to €19.2M in Q4 2023, a lower increase than in energy sold, as prices were higher last winter due to the energy crisis.
In the last quarter of 2023, 19 new stations were opened, including its first in Denmark.
During the same time, vehicles were charged at Fastned stations nearly 1.3 million times, representing a 64 per cent surge compared to the same period a year earlier.
Fastned’s extensive network enabled customers to cover more than 160M electric kilometres, contributing to the avoidance of an estimated 30.9 thousand tonnes of CO2 emissions.
In Q4 2023, the company added 19 new stations to its network. Fastned opened five stations in the Netherlands, five in France, three in the UK, two in Germany, two in Switzerland, one in Belgium, and the very first station in Denmark.
It brings the total number of stations to 297 in seven countries at the end of the year.
In the same quarter, 22 new locations were added to the pipeline.
During all of 2023, 59 locations were added, resulting in a total pipeline of 432 sites at the end of the year. It excludes the many sites expected to be added through the “Deutschlandnetz” tender win in the third quarter in which Fastned was awarded 92 search areas.
A total of 157 additional chargers were installed at new and upgraded stations during the last quarter of the year, bringing the total number of chargers in the network to 1,714. The average number of chargers per station increased to 5.8 at the end of Q4 2023, compared to 5.1 at the end of 2022.
By installing chargers with a capacity of up to 400kW, we offer EV drivers the fastest charging experience in Europe. At the end of Q4 2023, Fastned’s network already counts more than 5% of 400kW chargers and more than 73% of 300kW chargers.
“I’m extremely proud of all our colleagues and suppliers who worked hard to make all this happen, often under challenging weather conditions. The incredible journey we’ve made since the early days, and the exponential growth that lies ahead, strengthens my conviction that we’re on the right path. The best charging concept awards we won for the second year in a row, in the Netherlands and the UK, as well as the record of €31M in new bonds sold to investors in the quarter, only underscore that conviction,” says Michiel Langezaal, CEO Fastned.
Read the orginal article: https://siliconcanals.com/news/fastned-expands-to-spain/
