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José Carlos Espeso, Sustainable Mobility Coordinator at Calidad Pascual, and Elena Bernárdez, head of electric mobility at Endesa.
- The company made the announcement during the 2nd Conference on Mobility and Sustainable Tourism in Malaga, which will test drive electric vehicles on the island of Majorca, with the aim of extrapolating it to the rest of Spain.
- With this pilot project, Calidad Pascual aims to demonstrate that electric mobility is already a reality for commercial mobility in Spain.
- Endesa will install the charging infrastructure in Calidad Pascual’s regional sales office in Majorca and provide it with the ecaR network - a network of fast charging points that makes it possible to cover the entire island of Majorca in an electric vehicle.
- BMW, Hyundai, KIA, Mercedes, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault and Volkswagen have chosen to support the initiative and will provide their electric vehicle models during the 4-week pilot project.
Calidad Pascual, in collaboration with Endesa, has launched a pilot project in Majorca to showcase its commercial fleet of electric vehicles, with the aim of electrifying its entire fleet in Spain. This was announced this morning by José Carlos Espeso, Sustainable Mobility Coordinator at Calidad Pascual, during the 2nd Conference on Mobility and Sustainable Tourism held in Malaga.
José Carlos Espeso stated, “the aim of this pilot project is to test whether electric mobility today is a real option that guarantees commercial mobility for companies and, in particular, Calidad Pascual, which covers 15 million kilometres (9.3 million miles) per year to visit 150,000 points of sale. We want this pilot project to serve as a turning point in Spain for companies when it comes to making decisions”.
The pilot project will last 4 weeks and it is scheduled to begin on 16 October. The location chosen for the project is Majorca, where Endesa’s ecaR project is based (Endesa’s self-charging club), with a network of 6 fast charging points strategically located across the island, enabling the entire island of Majorca to be visited in a 100% electric vehicle, without having to worry about running out of battery. Endesa will also install semi-fast charging points in Calidad Pascual’s regional sales office in Majorca.
Elena Bernárdez, head of electric mobility at Endesa, commented "we are really proud to be able to develop this pilot project with Calidad Pascual, a company with which we share a commitment to sustainable mobility and improving the environment. Endesa is also transforming its commercial fleet into an electric fleet, specifically in Majorca, where around 90% of its sales employees already use pure electric vehicles, demonstrating that electric mobility, with a suitably-sized and appropriate support infrastructure, is possible”.
The project also has the support of the Spanish Business Association for the Boosting and Development of the Electric Vehicle Market (AEDIVE, according to its Spanish acronym) and in the words of Arturo Pérez de Lucía, managing director of the association, “Pascual’s commitment to electric mobility is yet another significant example of the interest shown by an increasing number of companies in reducing the contaminating emissions of their fleets, and which find electric vehicles to be the ideal solution in terms of efficiency and cost savings, while also conveying a clear corporate social responsibility message to their customers and society in general".
Electric vehicles
The pilot project also has the support of 8 major vehicle manufacturers: BMW, Hyundai, KIA, Mercedes, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault and Volkswagen; which also want to support the initiative and will provide 7 fully electric vehicles and 1 plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, to be used by Pascual’s sales personnel to visit customers in Palma de Mallorca.
A study will also be carried out during the test, with contributions from users to define whether they felt their autonomy, safety and efficiency requirements, among others, were met by the vehicle and the vehicle charging possibilities.
As José Carlos Espeso explained, “the aim is to extrapolate the project to the rest of Spain, with any corrections that need to be made at a peninsular level, with charging infrastructures in all Calidad Pascual’s work centres, making use of the existing charging points in major Spanish cities, fast charging points belonging to collaborators such as Endesa and the infrastructures belonging to vehicle manufacturers in their concessionaires”.
Pascual, an example of a sustainable delivery service
Calidad Pascual currently has a fleet of 600 vehicles, 70% of which is used for sales purposes to visit customers. Of this percentage, 30% covers urban city centres and the idea is to continue to increase this commercial fleet.
Calidad Pascual has had an Environmental Impact Plan in place since 2013, which includes sustainable mobility as a strategic element with the aim of minimising the impact of its transport activity on the environment and on the urban distribution of goods in city centres. Thanks to this plan and initiatives carried out via this, it currently has the largest sustainable fleet in Europe, with 2,400 vehicles certified by Ecostars.
In order to develop its electric mobility strategy, Calidad Pascual has been working on the definition of the ideal commercial user for this type of mobility, analysing where workers live, the area of commercial activity and the kilometres covered on a daily basis. The Spanish Business Association for the Boosting and Development of the Electric Vehicle Market (AEDIVE) also collaborated with this study.
Pascual wants to increase its support for sustainability with a commitment to sustainable mobility. As indicated by Espeso, “we want to raise awareness among politicians, business owners and society in general, regarding the economic, social and environmental benefits of sustainable commercial mobility".
Endesa and sustainable mobility
Testament to Endesa’s commitment to the environment, is its work on promoting sustainable mobility as an essential tool to combat climate change and promote sustainable development. Aware of the energy challenges that lie ahead for society, Endesa promotes electricity as the energy vector capable of balancing the increasingly demanding environmental and efficiency requirements with covering the energy requirements of society. One of the key aspects in this regard is undoubtedly electric mobility, which the company has been working on for many years now, via three driving levers; promotion and internal and external dissemination; technological development and commercial proposals.