Enel's race on electric mobility is proceeding at a brisk pace. By the end of the year, the group will have installed around 2.500 columns in Italy for recharging electric cars. And openings also come on the subject of the super-fast fiber network: Francesco Starace in fact dictated the line on the subject of the single fiber network: he confirmed his no "to mergers or corporate settlements" for Open Fiber (50% controlled by Cassa deposits) but has opened up to purchases of fiber from other partners, on the model of the one just completed between Of and Inwit-Tim for wireless connections. “We've already bought a company of the same amount – said Enel's CEO – and it's Metroweb”. In other words: others are not planned. Not even Sparkle? “I don't think so, no” was the answer.
The events on the Tim network ended up capturing attention after the day dedicated by Enel to taking stock of electric mobility. “We install 60-70 columns a week, they will be
918 by the end of the year”, Enel X manager Francesco Venturini had just said during the “e-Mobility Revolution 2018” at Vallelunga, the motor racing circuit on the outskirts of Rome. The new columns will add to the 1.578 already installed in the country. The pace is therefore intensifying - in line with the progress of the production of the main car manufacturers - with the aim of achieving a total installation of 14.000 charging stations by 2022, for a total investment of up to 300 million euros. Finally, the first 100 super-fast columns are operational on the extra-urban roads of the Eva+ project: they allow you to fill up in 20 minutes.
Enel's plans, announced by CEO Francesco Starace, which has already signed agreements for 4.300 recharging infrastructures with industries and public administrations, are driven by the strong expansion of electric vehicles: 4 million have been sold worldwide and in Italy the growth in registrations is intensifying, which doubled in the first 8 months of 2018 compared to the same period last year. “We are carrying out the plan for Italy and we will launch this operation in Spain in the coming months and later in Romania. Our ambition is to become a major infrastructure provider for electric mobility.” However, the plan has found a strong response in the private sector but it is more difficult to spread with the public administrations both due to cultural shortcomings and bureaucratic and administrative factors.
Of course, the government can also play a role in the electric car game. "The current government believes in it a lot - underlined Venturini - and it's not that the previous one didn't believe it but this one has a different idea of how to develop electric mobility". “In the coming weeks – he added – we expect a transition from announcements to reality”. This is not a request for incentives which, although aired above all by Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, would not find space in the already difficult 2019 budget maneuver. However, Venturini listed five points necessary to favor and make a leap forward for electric mobility : among these stands out – in fact – “the thrust of the Public Administration” but also the adoption of “a strategic national operational plan, with certain rules especially for small Municipalities; taxation; the tariff simplification on which the regulator must lend a hand”. In practice, we need "a push in the start-up phase but we are not asking for incentives", concluded Francesco Venutrini.
Enel has developed a series of solutions under the “Juice family” label ranging from the charging box – to be installed in the garage of the home or in the company headquarters – to the “JuicePole” on the road and intended for the public. Finally, the "JuiceLamp", presented at Vallelunga, integrates public lighting with the charging station: it is an "intelligent street lamp" with LEDs that allows you to fill up with up to two cars at the same time as well as other functions with video surveillance or connectivity in fiber and urban WiFi with a convergence between telecommunications and energy that anticipates the near future.
Enel is the second best stock on the FtseMib, up 2% at 13:13pm after cashing in the upgrade from Exane.
Morning dedicated to shopping for the prices of the Italian electric giant. At 10:35, Enel shares were up 2,3% on yesterday's already positive closing (+0,8%), against +1,4% for Ftse Italia Servizi Pubblici. The purchases on the shares of the group led by Francesco Starace were also fueled by the upgrade by Exane, which improved the recommendation on Enel to outperform from the previous neutral and raised the target price to 5,20 euros from the previous target price of 5 euros . We recall that yesterday the Italian electricity giant announced that the subsidiary for renewables has started the construction of the 84,7 MW Totana photovoltaic solar park, the company's largest in Spain. Based on the analysts' recommendations collected by Bloomberg, out of 32 opinions 24 are positive, 7 are neutral and only 1 is negative with an average target price of 5,51 euros.
