Today I participated as Director of the Corporate University of Power Electronics in the Round Table on electric mobility in the Conference on Renewable Energy and Energy Transition held at the Public Integrated Training Center of Catarroja.

 

Taking advantage of the presence of students and the forum in which we are, I will take this opportunity to relate this transition in which we are, specifically that of mobility, but also with that of renewable energies and, as you said on the previous table, of batteries. Cars, renewables and batteries. Let us keep those three words because they are the present and future of our young people.

If someone doesn’t know us, we work manufacturing the technology, in the form of power electronics, so that these three segments become a reality. Figures: since the beginning of 2018, in just 15 months, we have practically doubled our workforce. And from this increase 422 come out of the PF. This accounts for 45% of incorporations.

Fundamentally since:

(1) Automated electrotechnical installations.

2) Industrial electronics.

3) Automotive.

4) Renewable

If we expand to university studies, it would exceed 60%. Is this a coincidence? No. Because the demand for qualified personnel is going to be a tonic in an increasingly technological world.

Let’s think about the electric car. The fact that the electric car is going to take over our cities is not an elucubration; it is a reality. Although you still have to overcome certain obstacles, it is better, less polluting and will be cheaper.

The electric car has 40% fewer parts, and it requires 25% fewer hours of work. If we stay here, it may seem that there will be destruction of employment, but let’s return to our example, we do not make cars, we manufacture EV chargers and we manufacture solar inverters to get the necessary energy in a clean way. And this has led us to double the number of staff, and what should be highlighted is a staff with very specific qualifications.

It remains to be seen whether the employment balance will be positive or negative, but we can be sure that the change in the productive model will generate a lot of employment. But the key is to understand that not all the employment that is going to be created is going to directly replace those that may disappear.

The new job undoubtedly passes through a technical training, hence the importance of centers like this, where they are training professionals of the future.

THE FUTURE OF ELECTROMOBILITY

There is a lot of media noise about the challenges that the electric vehicle EV has to cover in order to be fully implemented. But we must always think about the environmental benefits it will offer us (which are not an option, but an obligation).

If we want to have millions of electric cars in a few years, we must overcome the barrier of the thousands we have today and this depends on all of us.

For all those who have doubts about whether it compensates for an electric car, I would say three questions:

1) Does the electric car cover my demand for daily autonomy? Let’s think that the average Spanish daily driving is 80 km.

2) Can I comfortably recharge from home or work?

3) Can I afford a higher investment knowing that the useful life will cost me less? The electric vehicle can cost to charge 5 times less than a conventional one.

If any answer to the three questions is no, nothing happens, it’s simply not the time to buy a vehicle.

But if we answer all 3 yes, you should definitely buy an electric car. We could be talking about 2 or 3 million new cars in no time. We would have jumped tens of billions. And this by multiplying it by each country.

And this will be a ball that will roll without stop. More cars, more volume, cheaper, more profitability, more freight infrastructure and more loaders sold by a company like ours.

And so more people could say YES to the three initial questions, going on to have more and more millions of electric cars.

That’s the future where all vehicles are electric, where roofs are filled with solar panels and storage batteries, and there are recharging points on all sides without this meaning anything strange.