Spain's Endesa, Japan's Mitsubishi seal electric car deal

Afp
Tuesday 21 September 2010 22:45 BST
Comments

Spanish utility Endesa said Tuesday it had signed an agreement with Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation to work together on the development of electric cars.

Under the agreement Mitsubishi will introduce its i-MiEV electric vehicle in Spain while Endesa, owned by Italy's largest power company Enel, would build infrastructure to provide power to electric cars in the country.

The two companies also aim to explore the possible expansion into the European Union and Latin America.

Earlier this month Spanish Economy Minister Elena Salgado was in negotiations with Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors over the possible contruction of a plant in the northwestern port of Vigo to produce parts for electric vehicles.

"Obviously we have the conditions for the plant to settle in Spain, one of the nations which is pushing the development of an electric vehicle the hardest" she said.

Spain's Socialist government has said it plans to invest 590 million euros (770 million dollars) over two years in the development of an electric vehicle and hopes to see 250,000 such vehicles on the roads by 2014.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in