The combination of traffic and smog has led to city-dwellers all over the world to demand pedestrian areas, efficient public transport and sustainable mobility for the sustainable growth of urban centres. With the chaos and pollution afflicting cities, Enel has chosen to push electric mobility, developing it for both privately owned vehicles and public transport both in small towns and major urban areas.
Smartcity Sanitago is the most recent example of Enel's work in developing sustainable transport. The initiative, which was realised by Chilectra and Enel Distribuzione, was inaugurated on 15 July and will see the development of electric public transport services in the Chilean capital as one of its major building blocks.
Electric cars came to Latin America thanks to Enel, the first company to install charging infrastructure and introduce zero-emissions vehicles in a number of the continent's countries. In 2012, only two years before the inauguration of Smartcity Santiago, Chilectra installed the country's first public charging station in the Chilean town of Vitacura. Meanwhile Peruvian capital Lima saw the country's first electric vehicle hit the road thanks to Edelnor, and the Enel Group is also driving e-mobility in Colombia, where the country's largest environmentally-friendly corporate fleet has been made available to Codensa and Gamesa employees.
Together, e-mobility and public services are crucial to the Group's promotion of sustainable transport. Edelnor is taking part in the construction of Lima's first underground line, while in Spain Enel has helped the creation of the Victoria project, which will see the realisation of an in-motion wireless charging system for electric buses. It's work in Italy led to the recent agreement for the integration of electric buses manufactured by Finmeccanica-BredaMenarinibus and Enel Distribuzione's charging infrastructure.