GALP EV SUSTAINABLE CHARGING NETWORK

The project concerns the deployment of an electric vehicle charging (EVC) network in Portugal and Spain, and involves the installation of 5,500 charging points. The charging infrastructure will consist of slow/normal charging stations as well as fast and super-fast chargers.

The project supports a wide range of policies at EU, national and city level. It will accelerate the deployment of alternative fuel infrastructure for transport and contribute to reach the EU ambition of one million public recharging and refuelling stations deployed by 2025 on European roads. The project is expected to significantly contribute to cleaner and lower-carbon road transport, thereby supporting the overall EU ambition to reduce transport related CO2 emissions by 90% by 2050 compared to 1990, in line with the Paris Agreement, the EU Low-Emission Mobility Strategy (2016) and recent European Green Deal announced in December 2019. In addition, the project will also contribute to the EIB's cross-cutting policy objectives of Climate Action and Cohesion.

The Project concerns the deployment of an Electric Vehicle Charging (EVC) network in Portugal and Spain.
The EVC network displays network effects, whereby each additional charging unit increases the social value of all other charging units. A large share of this benefit accrues socially rather than to the installer of the additional unit and therefore leads to under-provision, constituting a market failure.

This project also addresses the reduction of the negative environmental road transport externalities (e.g. carbon and pollutant emissions), by first tackling the 'first-mover' penalty resulting from the interdependency between the market for EVs and completion of a comprehensive charging infrastructure network.

Finally, the market, regulatory and technology risks associated with investing in EVC network will restrict private investment to low risk, high volume locations, and this will not result in the universal coverage required to further encourage electromobility on the scale required by the Paris Agreement commitments. The Bank's role is therefore to crowd in a greater lever of private investment and to extend its scale and coverage.

EIB financing will contribute to diversify the company's funding sources and lengthen the average maturity of the company's debt.

EVC infrastructure is not subject to environmental impact assessment under the EIA Directive (Directive 2014/52/EU amending the Directive 2011/92/EU on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on environment). However, the construction of greenfield parking locations where the EVC infrastructure is installed and/or the connections to the grid may be screened under Annex II of the said Directive. In such cases, the Bank requires to be informed of the screening decisions issued by the competent authorities. The competent authority for environmental matters in Portugal is the Portuguese Environmental Agency (Agencia Portuguesa do Ambiente). In Spain, each region has its own competent authority.

The Promoter has been assessed as being a private company, not having the status of a contracting authority or a public undertaking within the meaning of the EU Directives and not operating on the basis of special or exclusive rights in the utilities sector as per the Directive 2014/25/EU. Therefore, the Promoter is not subject to the EU Public Procurement Directives and the operation is considered as an operation in the private sector. The Bank has verified that the Promoter will follow suitable procurement procedures, ensuring an appropriate selection of goods and services offered at competitive price and in a timely manner, satisfying the criteria of economy and efficiency.