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Madrid, 16 September 2021. The headquarters of the EMT in Madrid, a pioneering organisation in innovative mobility, was the setting chosen for the presentation of the CIRVE project, which has been brought to a successful conclusion after installing 40 fast charge points in strategic locations on the Iberian Corridors. Connecting the Iberian Peninsula with the other countries of the European Union and raising awareness that electric mobility is real and an option for travelling around the Peninsula were the missions of the CIRVE project.

At the official opening ceremony presided over by Alfonso Sánchez, general manager of Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Madrid, Sánchez stressed that recharging infrastructures are essential to electric mobility. The CIRVE project partners, recharging managers Ibil, the project leader, EDP, Endesa X, GIC and Iberdrola, as well as the Spanish Business Association for the momentum of e-mobility in the Iberian Peninsula (AEDIVE), Renault Group and the Portugal Centre for Excellence and Innovation (CEIIA), succeeded in showing that the rollout of public access recharging infrastructures is operational, interoperable and efficient.

This was explained by the representatives of this innovative European project. "Developing electric mobility in Spain entails all market operators driving projects such as CIRVE. If electric vehicles are really going to become a habitual part of the transport ecosystem in our country, the situation must be made easy for vehicle users and this means meeting their needs: providing them with charge points where they need them and with the technology they need".

In a context in which recharging technology is advancing at a dizzying pace, the magnitude of CIRVE is manifest not only in the rollout of 40 fast charge points but in demonstrating interoperability in an effective way. In fact, among them the CIRVE project partners have more than 2,000 quick charge points in Spain.

Thanks to the CIRVE project, an important barrier to the development of electric mobility has been removed: Interoperability. CIRVE, which kicked off in 2018, was the first interoperability project in our country. The idea is that users need do no more than find the nearest charger, which they are able to use regardless of with whom they have a contract.

Interoperability was the main area of work, because it is a key factor for developing electric vehicles. The challenge is even greater when the objective is that this interoperability between recharging infrastructures crosses borders.

The result of the work and developments by the CIRVE partners, which have been real pioneers in the development of interoperability and the connection between Spain, France and Portugal is more sustainable and simpler mobility for all.

 

Lisbon, Madrid, Irun

The CIRVE project has been a turning point, because it has shown that travelling from Portugal to France charging at CIRVE charge points is now a real option.

The CIRVE project started in late 2015 with a budget of 3.5 million euros to be invested by December 2021 (which was postponed because of the pandemic) in a network of 40 quick charge points for electric vehicles along the corridors that connect the Peninsula with other European countries..

Jointly funded by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), it is part of the Trans-European Transport Networks or TEN-T). Like CIRVE, EMT, the over ground mobility manager in Madrid, has pioneered the introduction of the first 100 % electric buses, and since 2007, the municipal company has been strongly committed to gradually electrifying its fleet.

 

The TEN-T network

The Trans-European Transport Networks or TEN-T is a planned set of priority transport networks designed to facilitate the movement of people and goods throughout the European Union. Through this project, Europe funds projects that it considers strategic to the future of mobility on this content, one of which is an infrastructure of corridors of quick charge points for electric cars.

These corridors, like the Iberian version, have the mission of implementing a quick recharging infrastructure on Europe's main roadways, which will make it possible for electric cars to travel around and between European Union member states.