Barcelona approves grants for battery swapping stations

The Governing Commission of the Barcelona City Council definitively approved, on September 10, 2026, the Regulatory Bases for the granting of aid for the promotion of electric mobility and the installation of battery swap stations for light electric vehicles (Climate Plan 2030). The agreement is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Barcelona on September 16, 2026, with official reference CVE 202610140523 and file 2026_EXP_7999505, and enters into force the day after its publication.

The regulation, signed by the general secretary Jordi Cases i Pallarès, is approved without incorporating the generic modifications requested by SABA Aparcamientos, S.A., according to the report from the Mobility Services Directorate of the Area of Mobility, Infrastructure and Works. The objective is to facilitate the decarbonization of the city’s light vehicle fleet, which travels approximately 2 million kilometers per day, with an estimated reduction of up to 65,000 annual tons of greenhouse gases.

An instrument of the Climate Plan 2030

The bases are integrated into the strategic commitments of the Barcelona Climate Plan 2030, the roadmap for decarbonization and the improvement of air quality. This action contributes to respecting the new limit values for nitrogen oxides (NO2) and particles (PM10) required by Directive (EU) 2024/2881, which aims to achieve an annual average of 20 µg/m³ by the year 2030.

The aid is granted under a non-competitive public competition regime, in strict order of application submission until the funds are exhausted. Each application refers to a single battery swap station (BSS), which must remain in service for a minimum of five years.

Who can be a beneficiary

Individuals or entities acting as a charging operator or provider of the BSS service, or those who are owners of the site where it is installed, may access the aid. Among the planned beneficiaries are:

Charging point operators and electric mobility service providers, according to Royal Decree 184/2022.
Companies offering batteries as a service (rental, subscription, or equivalent models).
Entities holding concessions for public parking lots and operators of private parking lots.
Owners of residential parking lots, fuel supply stations, workshops, and car dealerships.

BSS can be installed in residential, non-residential, business areas, or on public roads, and must comply with the technical requirements of Annex I, including compliance with the IEC 62840 standard and CE marking.

Amount of the aid

The maximum amount of the aid per file is determined by percentages of the eligible cost:

60% for beneficiaries who do not carry out economic activity.
20% for beneficiaries with economic activity, increasable by 20% for medium-sized enterprises and by 30% for freelancers or small enterprises.
The grant cannot exceed €45,000 per file, nor 40% of the total budget of the call for the same beneficiary.

The application submission period, which will be set by each call, shall not be less than 30 business days from the publication in the BOPB. The calls will be approved by the Governing Commission and will be published in the same bulletin.

Impact on the city

With this regulation, Barcelona promotes an innovative infrastructure that separates the investment in the vehicle from that of the battery, reducing the initial cost for the user and encouraging subscription or rental models. The measure opens the door to the massive electrification of mopeds, motorcycles, and quadricycles, and reinforces the transition towards a more sustainable and decarbonized mobility, with a direct impact on air quality and noise reduction in the city.

Source: Official Bulletin of the Province of Barcelona, no. September 16, 2026, local administration section, pp. 1-26 (official reference: CVE 202610140523, file 2026_EXP_7999505).