Employees at Enel and the other Group companies around the world can offer leading testimony on the use of electric mobility in business, with Enel the first company to use electric cars for the everyday activities of its employees. This from a company that has already developed charging technology and infrastructure, making the distribution network smart and signing agreements with automotive companies, public administrations and research centres for the standardisation of technology and the interoperability of domestic and continental e-mobility networks.
Enel's work in e-mobility includes projects and initiatives in almost all the countries the Group operates in, and several of its companies have long since introduced hybrid and full electric cars to their corporate fleets.
In Italy the use electric cars in business activities has become a common practice. Enel Green Power and Enel Distribuzione are equipped with electric and hybrid vehicles used in the daily activities of employees working on plants and networks. Sustainable mobility is also well-established in plants, where carbon-free vehicles are being increasingly used, and the sales network, where for the past two years Enel Energia's commercial managers have been using extended-range electric vehicles. The most recent development of what is becoming an Enel tradition is the new electric car sharing project available to Rome-based employees, who will have access during working hours to 15 new vehicles that are being added to the already extensive fleet.
Endesa began working with electric cars in 2008, when the company began to introduce over 400 hybrid vehicles to its sales network fleet, turning it into the largest of its kind in Spain. Moreover, since 2010 Endesa has replaced 32 percent of its corporate fleet and local transport with electric vehicles. With these two initiatives, in seven years the Spanish company has been able to cut CO2 emissions by over 3,000 tonnes, equal to the amount of carbon dioxide that is absorbed by 70 hectares of Mediterranean woodland.
This approach is also being adopted in Latin America. In Colombia for example, electric bikes and cars have become customary for the employees of Group companies Codensa and Emgesa. Within the Zero CO2 emission programme, which was launched in 2011 to aid the spread of e-mobility in capital city Bogotá, the two energy generation and sales companies have made 16 electric cars and 48 electric bicycles available to employees for daily use. On its own the E-Bike to Work commuting programme involved 300 employees who made 12,000 journeys. Moreover, Emgesa bought 15 electric cars and 34 electric motorcycles for its corporate fleet, developing the charging infrastructure necessary to use them and building the largest environmentally-friendly corporate fleet in Colombia.