In 2023, more than 1.9 billion two- and four-wheeled vehicles were circulating around the world, according to data from the International Road Federation, and more than 90% still run on fossil fuels, according to the UN. Transportation, according to this organization, is responsible for 23% of CO2 emissions, of which almost 70% comes from road traffic. On the other hand, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that environmental pollution is related to more than four million premature deaths per year. These figures already give an idea of the need to advance in the decarbonization of the automotive industry, but if they were not enough, the geopolitical events of recent months, especially the attack by the United States and Israel on Iran, have added some more. Around 20% of the world’s oil crosses the Strait of Hormuz and in the three months that it has been blocked by the conflict in the Middle East, its price has risen by up to 70%. Decarbonization has ceased to be a solely environmental and climate issue, but has taken on an economic and sovereignty dimension. “An energy transition that combines renewables, combines efficiency and combines electrical uses is an antidote to the two crises, to a fragmentation of the global order and the climate crisis,” explained Jon Groizard, Secretary of State for Energy, at the opening of the round table Urban Mobility: Goodbye to fuels, organized by EL PAÍS and Acciona last Wednesday. For the Secretary of State, this transformation does not pose so much a technological challenge as a social and political challenge in a country in which, he noted, there is a consensus on its necessity. “That is the focus we should have: looking at these types of agreements instead of making cheap populism with low-emission zones, with electrification or with threats that are more of an artificial ghost than anything else,” he said. The banishment of conventional fuels, says Groizard, is the greatest opportunity that current generations have.
The electric step
With electrification, according to the experts who participated in the event, the numbers come out. They come from the country, which has promoted the generation of renewable energy that allows it to cushion geopolitical fluctuations in the market and on which to build a more competitive industry. And also to the user, points out May López, director of Companies for Sustainable Mobility, for whom the cost of ownership—which calculates the total expense that a product represents throughout its useful life—“already pays off.” Without forgetting the personal and economic tolls associated with diseases related to air pollution. “The question is not whether we are on the path, which I believe there is no turning back, but whether we are going at the right speed,” says Cristina Martínez, financial director of Silence, a Spanish manufacturer of urban vehicles owned by Acciona, about the electrification of the automotive industry. It is necessary to put at least one more gear. Only 2.5% of vehicles in circulation are electric, according to data from the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers, but they are gaining weight in sales, with around 21% in 2025 compared to 11.4% the previous year. “Decarbonization will go faster the more we are able to renew this park,” says Nacho Moya, general director of Faconauto, the dealership association. For this, López believes, it is necessary to facilitate the purchase of these vehicles for individuals and companies, which, unlike other countries around us, are behind in electrification compared to the former. “Taxation is also a very important lever and we are seeing it in many countries,” comments Moya in this regard. Joan Groizard, Secretary of State for Energy. Víctor SainzSpain has many of the necessary elements for a successful transition, but there are still holes through which this potential slips through. For example, a public charging network for electric vehicles, extensive but underused, which needs to streamline station permits and optimize the user experience, according to López. Or also a new regulation, which according to the expert, is not fully complied with, such as that relating to low-emission zones, which provided for the creation of 150 and which only 50 City Councils have complied with. “We also see great discontent among part of the citizens,” comments Manuel Pérez Bravo, researcher at the Technological Research Institute. “And it seems that the rules are the same for everyone, but the alternatives are not,” he says in relation to the differences in public transportation or infrastructure for electrification between the different territories. The challenge is to offer users the greatest number of options to cover their different needs and pay special attention to the most vulnerable groups. People for whom it is not easy to buy a new car or whose transportation expenses are determined by the area in which they live. “If we forget certain parts of the population, then this transition may break cruising speed,” says Pérez Bravo. You don’t have to go far to find clues about the way forward in the fight against decarbonization in transport. “Portugal is doing very well,” says Martínez. “I believe that what we fail in Spain, above all, is in making citizens aware that electric mobility exists, that it is feasible and that it does not represent a disruption in their customs,” he adds. The climate crisis suffered by the citizens of the planet, according to Pérez Bravo, does not however seem to be among people’s priorities when buying their next car: «We have to complement that consumer vision of ‘the first thing that matters to me is the size of the car, the second is the brand, the third is the color and the fourth is the engine’ with the objectives we have.» López, for his part, agreed on the need to improve communication and supported it with a fact: the alternative vehicles that sell the most are non-plug-in hybrids, which continue to depend on fossil fuels. “We have to make citizens understand what an electric vehicle is, why it has environmental, economic and social advantages, because as indicated before, it is the lever for reindustrialization at the national level, and make clear what it is not,” he assures as a final message of the round table.
