Noelia Castro Paredes, Endesa: “Our main aim was to introduce e-mobility in a very visible and friendly way”
The aim: one million shared kilometers by 2021
In March 2016, Endesa – the largest electric utility company in Spain – implemented a corporate car-sharing programme developed with lease provider Alphabet under its AlphaCity car-sharing toolbox. The tailor-made solution was called Car e-Sharing, in reference to the electric cars that would be used and to the company´s name.
Core business
“That of course also is a reference to our own core business”, says Noelia Castro Paredes at Endesa. “The first aim was to provide our employees with shared cars for meetings and other work duties in an urban environment. But our main aim was to introduce e-mobility in a very visible and friendly way, in order to push the change to EVs in our workforce. Our charging hubs are at the Endesa headquarters in Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Palma de Mallorca and on the Canary Islands”.
The scheme was not introduced without due diligence: “As per our company policy, we wrote a tender for the car-sharing service, which was won by Alphabet”. A pilot project was then completed successfully before the scheme itself was introduced, in one region after another – each time accompanied by an information and demonstration campaign, supported by Alphabet.
Flexible format
“The flexibility of the format, including the ease of reserving the vehicles through the platform, were important factors in the success, both of the pilot scheme and of the current system. We now have about 1,200 registered users for our EVs, which by now have travelled more than 145,000 km. By 2021, we hope to reach the one-million km milestone”, she says.
So, what are the Do's and Don'ts for other fleet managers to consider when thinking about introducing a car-sharing scheme?
Extracting information
“From my experience, I can say the flexibility and reliability of the sharing platform is a very important point. It is also interesting that we have the option of extracting information from our project that may be relevant to improving our fleet management; although we have yet to implement this option ourselves”.