For decades, talking about mobility meant talking about oil. Gasoline and diesel have been the fundamental fuels powering millions of vehicles around the world, and much of the modern transportation system has been built around them.
But that relationship is changing.
The electric car has ceased to be an experimental technology and has become a reality on a global scale. In 2025, more than 20 million electric cars were sold worldwide — roughly one in every four new cars. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that sales could reach 23 million in 2026.
At the same time, renewable energy continues to transform the electricity system. In 2025, renewables accounted for around 34% of global electricity generation, while solar PV experienced extraordinary growth.
Two revolutions, therefore, are taking place simultaneously: the electrification of transport and the decarbonization of electricity.
The major challenge for the coming years will be making sure that both evolve in a coordinated way.
The Electric Car Is No Longer the Future: It Is the Present
The transformation of the automotive sector is happening much faster than many people could have imagined just a decade ago.
In 2025, global electric vehicle sales grew by approximately 20%, surpassing 20 million units. Europe reached a share of around 28% of new car sales, while China approached 55%.
Naturally, the situation varies enormously from one country to another. But the global trend is clear: more and more drivers are replacing internal combustion engines with electric motors.
And this changes something fundamental.
A conventional vehicle needs energy in the form of gasoline or diesel. An electric vehicle needs electricity.
This means that mobility is becoming directly connected to the energy system.
The car is no longer simply a consumer of fuel. It becomes an electricity consumer connected to the grid.
And this is where renewable energy becomes strategically important.
From the Gas Station to the Electricity Grid
The electrification of transport offers an opportunity that goes far beyond simply changing the type of engine.
If an electric vehicle is charged with electricity generated from renewable sources, a significant part of the energy used for transportation can come from sources such as the sun, wind or hydropower.
This makes it possible to connect two processes that have historically operated largely independently:
renewable generation → electricity → battery → mobility.
The evolution of renewable energy is making this connection increasingly attractive.
In 2025, global renewable generation increased by around 8.5%. Solar PV alone produced approximately 600 TWh of additional electricity — the largest annual increase in generation ever recorded for a single energy source, outside exceptional periods of economic recovery.
The question is no longer simply how much renewable electricity we can produce.
The question is beginning to be:
How can we make sure that electricity reaches the car at the right time?
The Big Challenge: When Should We Charge the Car?
This is one of the most interesting challenges of the transition.
Solar energy has an obvious characteristic: it produces mainly during daylight hours.
However, many vehicles remain parked for much of the day and, in many cases, are connected to the grid precisely when solar generation starts to decline.
If millions of vehicles began charging simultaneously at the end of the working day, we could create new peaks in electricity demand.
That is why the future of electric cars is not simply about installing more chargers.
It is also about charging intelligently.
Smart charging makes it possible to shift charging to periods when electricity is more abundant or demand on the grid is lower.
For example, a vehicle arriving home at six in the evening and needing to be fully charged by seven the following morning does not necessarily need to start charging immediately.
The system could determine when charging is most beneficial.
If this coincides with periods of high solar generation, the vehicle could absorb some of that electricity that might otherwise be difficult to use.
This is where a new concept begins to emerge:
the electric car as an energy-management asset.
The Car as a Battery on Wheels
The evolution could go even further.
Technologies known as V2G — Vehicle-to-Grid — allow certain vehicles not only to receive electricity from the grid but also to send electricity back.
Imagine a vehicle connected to the grid for several hours.
It could charge when renewable generation is abundant and later return a small portion of that energy when the electricity system needs additional flexibility.
Now multiply this behavior by hundreds of thousands or millions of vehicles.
The electric vehicle fleet could gradually become a huge distributed energy-storage infrastructure.
We are still far from this becoming a widespread reality. The IEA notes that the first commercial V2G offerings for private users appeared in 2025, but also points out that only a limited number of compatible vehicle models are currently available and that regulatory frameworks and standards are not yet fully harmonized.
For this reason, the development of V2G will be one of the areas to watch closely over the coming years.
The Electricity Grid Will Be Just as Important as the Battery
When people talk about the future of electric cars, they usually think about range, price and charging time.
But there is another, less visible element that may be just as important:
the electricity grid.
A grid designed around a certain level of demand will progressively have to adapt to new electricity consumption from transport, alongside other forms of electrification such as heating, industry and data centers.
The IEA estimates that, under current policies, global electricity demand associated with electric vehicles could exceed 1,500 TWh by 2035. Although this would represent roughly 4% of global electricity demand at that time, the impact will vary significantly between regions. In Europe, for example, road-transport electrification could account for more than 10% of electricity demand by 2035.
The challenge, therefore, is not simply to generate enough electricity.
We will also need:
- stronger distribution networks;
- greater grid connection capacity;
- energy-storage systems;
- smart demand management;
- fast-charging infrastructure;
- digitalization;
- and mechanisms capable of coordinating millions of consumers.
The energy transition will inevitably also be a grid transition.
Spain: A Particularly Interesting Opportunity
Spain starts from a unique position.
The country has excellent solar and wind resources and has experienced strong growth in renewable electricity generation.
In 2025, renewables generated 55.5% of all electricity produced in Spain, exceeding 150 TWh and reaching a new record. Including estimated generation from self-consumption, the renewable share reached 56.6%.
At the same time, vehicle electrification is accelerating.
According to ANFAC, 115,062 battery-electric vehicles were registered in Spain in 2025, an increase of 75.7% compared with 2024. Battery-electric vehicles represented 8.39% of annual registrations, while BEVs and PHEVs together accounted for 17.9%.
There is still a long way to go, but the direction is significant.
Spain could find itself in a particularly interesting position:
abundant sunshine + strong wind resources + growing renewable capacity + increasing transport electrification.
The challenge will be ensuring that these elements develop in a coordinated way.
The Battery Challenge
We cannot talk about electric cars without talking about batteries.
The battery remains one of the most important components of an electric vehicle and is at the heart of much of the industry’s technological innovation.
The progress made in recent years has been enormous: higher energy density, better battery-management systems, lower costs and increasingly shorter charging times.
The IEA estimates that the average range of battery-electric vehicles is now around 380 kilometers globally, although there are significant differences between models and markets.
But challenges remain.
The availability and geographical concentration of certain raw materials, cell manufacturing, industrial dependence, recycling and reuse will all become strategic issues.
The good news is that innovation is not simply focused on developing larger batteries.
It is also focused on developing more efficient, longer-lasting, faster-charging batteries with lower dependence on certain critical materials.
And this leads to an important point: the electric car of the future will probably not simply be a vehicle with an increasingly larger battery.
It will be a vehicle designed to use energy much more intelligently.
Do We Really Need That Many Chargers?
Another major issue is charging infrastructure.
It is often assumed that we will need enormous networks of public chargers. However, a significant share of charging will continue to take place at home or at the workplace.
The IEA estimates that in 2025 there were more than 43 million private charging points for light-duty vehicles worldwide. Home charging remains the preferred option for users who have access to it.
This changes the nature of the challenge.
It is not simply about having thousands of fast chargers along highways.
It is also about ensuring that millions of homes, businesses, parking facilities and buildings can manage charging effectively.
Infrastructure will have to become much more distributed.
Not All Vehicles Will Follow the Same Path
There is a tendency to talk about electric vehicles as if every form of transportation were going to be electrified in exactly the same way.
That is unlikely to happen.
For passenger cars and light-duty vehicles, battery electrification appears particularly well suited.
It can also be highly competitive for urban buses and certain commercial vehicles.
But when we look at long-haul heavy transport, industrial machinery, aviation or shipping, energy requirements are very different.
In these sectors, several solutions could coexist: batteries, hydrogen, synthetic fuels, biofuels and other technologies.
The energy transition will not have a single winning technology for every application.
The Major Challenges for the Years Ahead
Looking towards 2030–2035, the relationship between renewables and electric mobility will have to address several challenges simultaneously.
1. Increasing Renewable Generation
Electrification requires electricity.
The IEA expects around 4,600 GW of new renewable capacity to be added worldwide between 2025 and 2030, with solar PV accounting for roughly 80% of this expansion.
2. Modernizing the Grid
Generating energy is not enough. It must also be transported and distributed where it is needed.
3. Managing Demand
Smart charging will make it possible to prevent millions of vehicles from creating new peaks in electricity consumption.
4. Developing Energy Storage
Stationary batteries, pumped-storage hydropower and other technologies will help make better use of variable renewable generation.
5. Improving Batteries
Greater range should not simply mean larger batteries. Efficiency, cost, durability, charging speed and recyclability will be equally important.
6. Building the Right Charging Infrastructure
Particularly in cities, residential buildings, long-distance transport corridors and areas where access to private charging is limited.
7. Integrating Vehicles into the Energy System
The real technological leap could occur when vehicles stop being considered simply consumers of electricity and begin actively participating in energy management.
Where Are We Heading?
We are probably entering a second phase of the electric revolution.
The first phase was about proving that electric vehicles could work and compete technologically with conventional vehicles.
The next phase will be much more complex.
We will have to integrate millions of vehicles, millions of chargers, thousands of renewable-energy installations, stationary batteries and increasingly digitalized electricity grids.
And all of these elements will need to communicate with one another.
The electric car will then become much more than a means of transportation.
It could become part of the energy system itself.
A vehicle could charge when solar electricity is abundant, drive during the day and, under certain circumstances, return some of its stored energy to the grid when it is needed.
The boundary between transportation and energy will begin to disappear.
Conclusion: Two Revolutions That Need to Meet
The transition towards electric cars and the growth of renewable energy are not two independent processes.
They need each other.
Electric vehicles increase electricity demand, but they can also provide flexibility to the system. Renewables provide clean and increasingly competitive electricity, but they need flexible consumers, storage and grids capable of integrating increasingly variable generation.
That is why the most interesting question may no longer be:
When will our car become electric?
The truly important question will be:
How will we build the energy system capable of powering millions of electric cars in an efficient, renewable and flexible way?
The answer will probably involve a combination of technologies: solar, wind, energy storage, smart grids, advanced batteries, smart charging and, in some cases, vehicle-to-grid systems.
The future of electric mobility will not be decided solely in automotive factories.
It will also be decided in solar farms, wind farms, electricity grids, batteries and our own garages.
Because the real revolution is not simply about changing the engine of the car.
It is about changing the relationship between the car and energy.
And that revolution has already begun.
Discover more from Renewable Energy & Technology
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.