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PALMA

PALMA City Council has officially opened a battery recharging point for electric cars in the underground municipal car park in Via Roma. It is the first of six points which the Council plans to set up, one for each of the city's districts.

Mayor Aina Calvo was in the spotlight yesterday in a demonstration of how to use the recharging point which can also top up the batteries of electrically-powered motorbikes, bicycles and wheelchairs. As well as the service being totally free for two years, those cars or bikes which use the recharger will be able to have two free hours of parking.

Calvo said that the great advantage of using electricity to power cars is that it is non-contaminating. The more that electric cars are used, the more the CO2 levels in the atmosphere will be reduced, she added. Apart from that, said the Mayor, such cars are much quieter. The Mayor said that opting for electric vehicles in is fact a major step “towards the future” but that she realised that this new mode of transport was still in its infancy - there are currently only two such cars in Palma. However, earlier this month, the Transport department on the City Council launched a campaign to encourage people to invest in electric cars as opposed to vehicles which run on fossil-based fuel.

Calvo said that Palma's Municipal Car Parks Society is going to take responsibility for setting up recharging points at other municipal car parks.
Antonio Nicolau, Sales Director for Basebatecno - the dealership for the electric car on Majorca - said yesterday that the full recharging of an electric car costs around 3 euros and lasts 10 hours. The driver can go for 200 kilometres without having to “top up.”