Electric cars are arriving on Pontevedra’s streets faster than ever, but the province’s charging network isn’t keeping pace. Registrations of new fully electric cars have more than doubled this year, yet drivers still struggle to find places to plug in. The gap between sales and infrastructure threatens to slow the region’s progress in Spain’s shift to electric vehicles.
From January through early September, Pontevedra registered 1,459 new electric cars, 18.35% of all new passenger vehicles sold in the province. That’s nearly twice the national average of 10.61%, putting Pontevedra ahead of every other Galician province, including Lugo and A Coruña. When it comes to charging, though, Pontevedra falls behind.
As of September 1, 2026, Spain had 52,746 public charging points, a 5.49% year-on-year increase, information from Aedive.
Public charging is the basic obstacle. FuelObserver reports that Pontevedra has just 386 public charging points at 150 locations, with 491 connectors in total. A Coruña has 505 points. Lugo and Ourense have 232 and 167, respectively. Nationally, Spain has reached only about 17% of its 2030 goal of 340,000 public chargers. Major cities like Madrid and Barcelona skew the average upward, leaving many regions underserved.
The problem goes beyond the number of chargers. Many offer low or medium power, and a impressive portion are out of service. OBS Business School’s latest report says nearly one in four public chargers in Spain doesn’t work, often because connecting them to the grid takes too long, sometimes up to three years. Ultra-fast charging stations remain especially scarce, making long trips difficult for EV owners.
Even as new electric cars fill showrooms, most vehicles on the road still run on combustion engines. Plug-in cars make up just 2.3% of Spain’s total passenger vehicle fleet, despite electrified models accounting for 21.8% of new registrations in the first half of the year. The gap between new sales and actual use is growing, with infrastructure as the basic bottleneck.
The Spanish government reported that, as of September 2026, the country had 42,318 public charging points with a combined installed capacity of 2,269,170 kW. Infrastructure development remains highly uneven across regions, with some areas facing grid connection delays of up to three years, compared with 5 to 12 months in neighboring countries.
Galicia as a whole is ahead of the Spanish average for electric car uptake, with 17.4% of new registrations. A Coruña leads in total numbers, while Pontevedra’s rapid growth is shifting the regional balance. Drivers in Pontevedra are still waiting for long-promised upgrades: 16 ultra-fast chargers at the San Simón service area on the AP-9 and another 16 at Caldas, both still unopened.
Spain’s electric transition is also under scrutiny over plug-in hybrids. Recent data shows their real-world emissions are much higher than official figures suggest. That adds pressure to build a reliable charging network for zero-emission vehicles.
Google/SpainAuto data shows Pontevedra’s demand for electric cars is outstripping its ability to charge them. Without quick investment in high-capacity, working charging points, early enthusiasm could turn to frustration. Sales numbers matter little if drivers can’t recharge when and where they need to. Spain’s green transition will be tested by whether drivers can charge on the road.
