Gamesa and Toyota Spain are joining forces in the field of energy-efficient mobility, signing a collaboration agreement to boost the use of electric vehicles in urban Spain.
ToyotaSpain is lending Gamesa a plug-in hybrid vehicle for a six-month period so it can test and verify the car's technology, identify potential limiting factors and analyse its charging requirements in order to facilitate the mass market rollout of vehicles of this nature in Spain in the near term.
In a departure, Gamesa will test drive the Prius Plug In in an urban environment as well as at a wind farm.
During the pilot period, Gamesa will share the data compiled during the vehicle's test drives regarding the car's technology and energy saving performance with Toyota Spain in order to furnish information for the Movele initiative, coordinated by the IDAE (acronym in Spanish for the institute for energy diversification and savings), of which Toyota is a member. This initiative is working on demonstrating the technical, energy and financial viability of this class of cars.
"These energy efficient cars with their reduced carbon footprints can and must contribute short and medium term to the energy saving and environmental protection imperative and to verifying the enormous synergies between wind energy and green mobility", said David Mesonero, Gamesa's Director of Corporate Development.
"Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle technology improves fuel efficiency and reduces harmful emissions, including CO2 and those with an impact on air quality in our cities. The new Prius Plug-in Hybrid combines the benefits of an electric vehicle for short journeys -with zero emissions and zero fuel consumption- and the unlimited driving range of a hybrid vehicle with a petrol engine," according to Jacques Pieraerts, President & CEO of Toyota Spain.
Commitment to technological diversification as the way towards green mobility
Gamesa is committed to ‘green' mobility under the umbrella of its technology diversification strategy.
The company is working on delevoping charging stations for electric vehicles. Manufacture of these stations at Gamesa Electric's electric components factory in Valencia got underway this year. In fact charging stations are already in place in Valencia and at the head office in Madrid. Moreover, the company has already signed a charging station supply and marketing agreement with Iberdrola and is currently holding talks with other sector heavyweights.
Through Gamesa Venture Capital, the company has an interest in Spanish high-tech start-up N2S, a specialist provider of smart energy management services. N2S has developed a real-time smart management platform for electric vehicle charging infrastructure which is marketed under the trade name POWER2DRIVE. This system can accommodate and integrate all charging station makers in the market.
About Gamesa
With 18 years of experience and over 24,000 MW installed in 35 countries, Gamesa is a global technology leader in the wind turbine market. Its comprehensive response includes the design, construction and installation of wind turbines, as well as the operation and maintenance services' management on 16,300 MW.
Gamesa has some thirty factories in Europe, the US, China, India and Brazil and a global headcount of 8,000 employees.
The company is also a global benchmark in the development, construction and sale of wind farms. Gamesa currently boasts a pipeline of 23,800 MW at varying stages of development in Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Toyota Spain
ToyotaSpain distributes and sells Toyota and Lexus vehicles, to which end it has a staff of 175 at its Alcobendas (Madrid) head office and a network of 80 Toyota dealers, encompassing 174 Toyota points of sale and 179 Toyota service centres employing over 3,400 people. Toyota Spain has a spare parts and accessory distribution centre in San Agustín de Guadalix (Madrid) and a logistics centre in Sagunto (Valencia).
In 2011, new Toyota registrations totalled almost 41,607 units, giving it a market share of 5.3%. As for hybrid vehicles, in 2011 Toyota and Lexus sold over 8,900 units, year-on-year growth of 45%.