EDP and Jaguar Land Rover to speed up EV adoption in Portugal
Portuguese utility EDP Comercial has partnered with British automaker Jaguar Land Rover to help expand the electric vehicles market in Portugal.
With the lack of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure as one of the main barriers to smart mobility, the two parties help increase access to EV chargers for EV drivers.
Customers who will purchase a Jaguar EV will be provided with a charging solution for both indoor and outdoor use. EDP and the automaker will make sure EV customers are provided with an indoor EV charging solution and onsite power generator to provide clean electricity. For outdoor charging, drivers will be able to use the EDP Electric Mobility card with a special tariff and access more than 1,000 charging points operated by EDP Comercial across the country.
The partnership will enable sharing of knowledge and expertise from the utility and automaker industry to address challenges hindering both the electrification of the transport system and green transition.
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This partnership comes as part of the companies’ commitment to promoting electric mobility. The development is part of the automaker’s ‘Reimagine’ global strategy, which aims to make all Jaguar and Land Rover nameplates available in pure electric form by 2030. The strategy will enable Jaguar Land Rover to become a net-zero carbon business by 2039.
EDP Comercial Director Pedro Vinagre, adds: “Purchasing an electric vehicle is often the customer’s entry into the electric mobility ecosystem. It is perfectly normal to have questions about the best charging equipment, the available tariffs, or what it takes to charge the vehicle on public roads. The purpose of this partnership is to make the customer’s experience with Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles simple and distinctive.”
Despite bottlenecks being faced in the transition to smart mobility, in addition to the operational challenges caused by the pandemic, 2021 has so far been a record year for EDP within the EV business. The utility has installed and connected 60,000 EV charges on its network in Portugal in the first six months of 2021 – four times more compared to the same period in 2020.
The chargers have consumed 750.000 kWh – four times more than in the first half of 2020. The increasing number of EV chargers has also increased consumer usage of smart transportation. As a result of the chargers, more than 500 tonnes of CO2 were avoided in Portugal between January and June, and nearly 5 million kilometres were travelled on electricity alone – roughly the same distance as 125 trips around planet Earth.
