EIB grants €150 million loan to Cepsa to foster electric mobility in Spain and Portugal

The project is part of Cepsa’s strategy to install ultra-fast chargers in its service stations during this decade. This financing arrangement promotes the electrification and decarbonisation of the road mobility and the transition to a more sustainable model. It also supports Cepsa’s decarbonisation strategy “Positive Motion”.

“This loan is just one more piece of evidence of the EIB’s commitment to sustainable mobility — of which electrification and decarbonisation of road transport are a crucial part. Developing universally accessible electric charging infrastructure is key to accelerate our transition towards electric vehicles and reduce emissions in a sector vital to reaching carbon neutrality in the European Union. To achieve these objectives, a strong cooperation with companies that are committed to decarbonisation is essential,” stated EIB Vice-President Ricardo Mourinho Félix at the signing ceremony in Madrid.

Maarten Wetselaar, CEO of Cepsa, highlighted: “In our ‘Positive Motion’ strategy, the decarbonisation of road transport and sustainable mobility play a fundamental role. To make electric mobility a reality, we are committed to ultra-fast charging that makes it possible to make intercity trips in an electric vehicle without the charging time being an obstacle to encourage user demand. We thank the EIB for supporting this project, which allows us to move forward our objective of deploying ultra-fast chargers in more than half of our service stations in Spain and Portugal.”

The approved funding will help achieve the European Union’s goal of putting a million electric vehicle charging stations into service on Europe’s roads by 2025, furthering the gradual decarbonisation of the transport sector. Today, road transport creates around 73% of all transport emissions in the European Union placing this economic sector among the worst greenhouse gas emitters.

The project is aligned with the objectives of the EU Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and is part of the European Commission’s Connecting Europe Facility. Over 70% of the charging stations will be installed in regions whose per capita income is below 75% of the EU average, pursuing the EIB’s cross-cutting objective of promoting social and economic cohesion.

The loan is also part of the EIB’s action plan to support REPowerEU in ensuring energy security in order to reduce EU dependence on fossil fuel imports.

Cepsa ultra-fast charging network

Cepsa is deploying an extensive ultra-fast charging network in its service stations in Spain and Portugal, with chargers of at least 150 kW located in the main corridors and communication routes. Currently, the company has built more than 130 ultra-fast charging points, is advancing in the development of another 330 and its goal in 2030 is to have this type of chargers in more than 1 000 service stations. Ultra-fast chargers allow electric vehicle users to charge up to 80% of their batteries in approximately 10 minutes, depending on the vehicle model.

The EIB and sustainable transport

The EIB finances projects that drive greener, safer and more accessible transport, in line with its Transport Lending Policy, updated in July 2022 following the adoption of the Climate Bank Roadmap and the European Green Deal. This policy sets the investment priorities needed to surmount the challenges facing the transport sector, and those most apt to power the shift to a more sustainable model. Sustainable transport is based on four interdependent pillars: It must be safe, accessible, green and efficient. In 2022, the EIB Group financed projects to promote sustainable transport totalling over €10 billion. In Spain, the financing for that year reached €1.5 billion. In Portugal, financing in 2022 to increase the sustainability of regions and cities exceeded €360 million.