Earlier in May this year, Spain adopted a Climate Change and Energy Transition Law that seeks to revitalize the country’s pandemic ravaged economy through a greener, more sustainable developmental roadmap.
In terms of cost and convenience, it’s now quite clear that the total cost of operations over the lifetime of a zero emission commercial vehicle will be much less than for an ICE equivalent.
More specifically though, the new Switch Spanish facility which will begin construction in early January will align fully with Switch’s comprehensive zero carbon philosophy.
In short, the focus will be on realizing a zero carbon corporate and product footprint.
Today, road transport accounts for around 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in Spain.
Spain’s bus industry accounts for nearly 95,000 jobs with most of the 3,350 companies active in this space being small and medium enterprises.
In April of this year, the Spanish government announced a €13.2 billion investment in vehicle electrification as part of a slew of measures to modernize the economy using EU pandemic recovery funds.
However, automotive sales – the region’s leading source of exports – plunged in 2020 in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic.
Switch’s plant, therefore, will signal a comeback in terms of regional investment and renewal driven by alternative energy vehicles.
And while the plant might not quite be able to roll off La Liga footballers from its assembly lines, it will manufacture e-Buses and e-LCVs and have an R&D center that develops products specifically for the European market.
The first e-Buses will be produced from the Castilla y León plant in Q4, 2022.