Difficulties for car-hire sector in switching to electric

The vehicle-hire sector will be affected by the legislation, which hasn't yet been passed by the Balearic parliament but is scheduled to be by the end of the year. A government requirement will be that at least two per cent of the vehicle-hire fleet is electric by 2020. Ramón Reus, the president of the Aevab association which represents vehicle-hire companies, says that his members are going to face considerable difficulty in meeting this.

He points out that an electric vehicle can cost as much as 15,000 euros more than a conventional equivalent. The sector is being expected to accept this without there being any financial assistance. The price charged to clients will clearly have to reflect the cost of the vehicles.

Reus notes that some 90,000 vehicles are available for hire in the main season. Of these, at present only forty are electric. There had in fact been more but they were dropped because of the deficient charging infrastructure. He is hopeful that manufacturers will bring out cheaper electric models, but for now the prices are prohibitive.