Spanish oil company Cepsa (Compañía Española de Petróleos) has received a 150 million euros loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to build more than 1,800 HPC charging stations at its petrol stations in Spain and Portugal.

So far, Cepsa has built over 130 ultra-fast charging points for electric cars and has 330 more in the pipeline. Cepsa’s goal is to have HPC chargers at more than 1,000 petrol stations by 2030. At the end of 2021, Cepsa had announced a cooperation with the Spanish utility Endesa to develop the largest interoperable HPC network for electric cars in Spain and Portugal.

The project is aligned with the EU’s Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy. It says that over 70% of the planned charging stations should 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 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 charging stations themselves are to be capable of charging at least 150 kW, “located in the main corridors and communication routes”. Cepsa had initially started fitting its fuel stations with charging infrastructure through a cooperation with Ionity back in 2018.

“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.