The Minister of Industry, Commerce and Energy of Cabo Verde, Mr Alexandre Monteiro, inaugurated on 13 July 2023 in the city of Santa Maria, Sal Island, the first public charging station (CS) for electric vehicles (EVs), funded by the Mitigation Action Facility through the ProMEC project – Promotion of Electric Mobility in Cabo Verde. The event is a major milestone towards implementing a vast network of public charging stations across the nine inhabited islands of the country.
The implementation of a National Charging Infrastructure (INR, acronym in Portuguese) was identified by the Government of Cabo Verde as one of the three main objectives of the Policy Letter for Electric Mobility, alongside the full conversion of the public administration fleet by 2030 and the full substitution of all internal combustion engine vehicles in the country by EVs by 2050.
As part of the ProMEC project, a concession contract was signed on 8 June with the local company Trações Elétricas de Cabo Verde (TECV), a subsidiary of the water and energy company Águas de Ponta Preta (APP), towards the implementation of 40 charging stations which will be part of the INR. Two charging stations will be equipped with DC charging (up to 50 kW), while the remaining 38 CS will be equipped with AC charging (up to 22 kW). The concession is valid for seven years, during which TECV is responsible for installing, operating, and maintaining the charging stations. The tariff rate is 40 CVE/kWh (0.36 EUR/kWh).
Several representatives of public and private institutions were in attendance during the inauguration ceremony in Santa Maria. During his speech, Minister Alexandre Monteiro highlighted the importance of the Mitigation Action Facility for implementing this activity, which will boost the confidence of current and prospective users in the electric mobility market. The availability and affordability of public charging stations will ease range anxiety concerns and provide a business case for substituting internal combustion engine vehicles with EVs, given that the cost of recharging the latter is significantly lower than refuelling the former.
Santa Maria, renowned as the main tourism hub of Cabo Verde, has significant potential for the transition to electric mobility as part of the Government of Cabo Verde’s efforts to increase the sustainability of tourism by decreasing its carbon footprint. The Municipality of Sal, where Santa Maria is located, currently ranks second in the country in the overall numbers of EVs on the roads, only behind Praia – the latest figures indicate that there are more than 20 EVs in Sal.
There has been a consistent increase in the number of EVs in Cabo Verde, mainly because of the available rebates and current government fiscal incentives. To meet this demand, TECV expects to install all remaining public charging stations over the next 12 months.
Besides the implementation of a network of public charging stations, the project is supporting Cabo Verde’s transition to electric mobility through several activities, such as providing rebates for the purchase of electric vehicles, operationalising a pilot project for electric buses and the review and development of legal and regulatory documents, among others. For further information, please visit the project official website (available in Portuguese): https://www.portalenergia.cv/promec.