The electric stations evolve as the electric vehicle advances. The trend is for them to be complete service stations and offer various types of charging to different vehicles and, also, a useful and comfortable waiting time for their owners. A complete sample is in the first large electric station of Acciona Energía, recently inaugurated in Madrid.
By size, it is equipped with 32 accessible charging spaces, including fast charging. Thus, it covers all the diversity of types of vehicles that can recharge their batteries: passenger cars, light trucks, motorcycles and even electric wheelchairs. In addition, it also has a station for exchanging removable batteries in trolley format for Acciona’s Silence electric vehicles.
And, for auxiliary services. The electric station, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, is equipped with access barriers and a security service with permanent surveillance cameras. In addition, it has a services module in which there are toilets, vending and coffee machines, a space where drivers can stay while their vehicle is recharged.
Trend for the future
These aspects, which are already obvious from the access to the electric station, and are part of those highlighted by Abraham José Ransón, project director in the Acciona Recarga team, division of Acciona Energía. «We wanted it to set a trend for the future. We have sought to make it an installation not only capable of facilitating recharging for all types of users, but also to have all these types of details to make it safe, comfortable and different from, as many users say, those chargers that are in the middle of nowhere.
Ransón also highlights the construction design, such as the “access pergola, built with wood.” A sustainable and 100% recyclable material that tomorrow can be used for anything else. The company has relied on “our Digital Hub, which has designed urban furniture manufactured using 3D printing, with mortar instead of plastic. Because we always try to build with innovative and sustainable manufacturing systems.
Both the chargers and the other equipment at the electric station are supplied with 100% renewable energy “which is one of our hallmarks. In the case of the chargers, with 3,000kW of installed power, the energy is 100% renewable with a guarantee of origin. The rest of the installation that consumes the energy is generated by the solar panels that cover the canopies under which the chargers are installed and where the vehicles are located for recharging. “The whole has a power of 150.42 kWp, capable of generating 200,000 kWh and avoiding the emission of 54 tons of CO2 per year. “This energy contributes to making both the service building and the rest of the facility energy self-sufficient, and what is left over goes directly to recharge.”
Future expansion
The project includes an expansion, scheduled for 2028, which will include 24 new spaces. In total there will be 56 public charging points, so that users will have one of the largest and most versatile charging facilities in Madrid. And, in the words of the councilor for the Mobility Area of the Madrid City Council, Borja Carabante “will contribute to the objectives of Sustainable Urban Mobility and the Madrid 360 strategy.”
With this installation, Acciona Energía now offers access to more than 5,000 charging points in Spain, both its own and those of third parties, located in urban environments and in the main interurban corridors.
Charging hubs for a rising market
The electric car market in Spain is experiencing significant sales growth in 2025. In the first half of the year alone, 123,315 vehicles of this type were registered, which means that more electric cars were sold before the summer than in all of 2024.
But there are still brakes on the advance of the electric car and the main one is the so-called ‘range anxiety’: the fear of running out of charge to reach the destination, which continues to be a handicap for leaving the combustion engine behind.
How to eliminate that worry? According to data from the Business Association for the Development and Promotion of Electric Mobility, in Spain there are more than 47,000 public access chargers, but operators still have the challenge of optimizing them, they must ensure their availability and adjust to the growth of the electric mobile fleet. Therefore, it is necessary to create ‘charging hubs’ with a comprehensive offer with different loading speeds, possibility of use for trucks, etc.