A few days ago, Guillermo travelled to the island of Formentera with his electric vehicle and two friends, planning to enjoy a short holiday. What he didn’t anticipate was how difficult it would be to recharge his car.
In a message to Periódico de Ibiza y Formentera yesterday, this user denounced the ‘shameful and unacceptable’ situation he experienced in Es Caló when trying to use the electric vehicle charging service. According to his account, one of the three chargers has been out of service for months with no indication of this. The only operational charger had both sockets occupied, and a third charger located on the public road next to a ‘No parking except for electric vehicle charging’ sign does not appear on the official app. When he called technical support, he was told that this charger was reserved for ‘private use’.
«It’s another ordeal just to speak to the operator. When they told me that the terminal was for private use, they implied that it was only for Consell employees,» he said.
According to the affected party, «the result of all this is that we were literally stranded in Formentera with an electric car, at real risk of missing the 8 p.m. ferry because we couldn’t travel with our luggage or the vehicle. This situation demonstrates a total lack of coordination and negligence on the part of both the dealership and the public administration. Not only does the public administration fail to guarantee a basic service, it also maintains a charging point on public roads reserved for supposed ‘private use’, without any signage».
This citizen considered it ‘ironic’ that institutions talk about promoting sustainability and the use of electric vehicles, yet in practice, the few available chargers are broken, hidden in the app, or reserved for other purposes. He also stated that users of these vehicles deserve decent, transparent service and ‘not situations that jeopardise our mobility and cause economic and personal damage’.
«Given the situation, we were afraid to try finding chargers in other parts of the island in case the same thing happened, so we stayed in Es Caló, our base of operations. We waited for hours for one of the sockets to become free so that we could recharge the vehicle,» he added.
Guillermo also criticised the fact that the app whose QR code appears on the posts is obsolete, having been replaced by another app a few months ago without any information being provided to this effect. «Until a local resident told us that this app no longer worked and that we should use MELIB 2025, we were going crazy because it seemed to be working.» He also told us that the broken charger had been out of order for months, but no one had fixed it and there was no sign to indicate this,’ he added.
‘Ultimately, we were fortunate to reach our destinations, but it’s disgraceful that anyone could be stranded. This is my first experience with an electric vehicle and it was complicated enough in Denia. In Formentera, the service is free, but there are no signs to indicate this,» he reiterated.
According to data provided yesterday by the Balearic Ministry of Business, Employment and Energy, there are currently 38 operational points in Formentera belonging to the MELIB network (Balearic Islands Electric Mobility Network). Specifically, there are two sockets available in the car park area in es Caló.
Last April, the Balearic Energy Institute (IBE) began migrating all electric vehicle charging points to the new MELIB network mobile application. As the Executive highlighted at the time, the measure was an important step in the modernisation of the service, as the new MELIB 2025 application ‘offers a more intuitive interface and greater operational stability, which will allow for more efficient management of the charging points’.
In addition, the measure will allow for the incorporation of more than 600 new charging points. Of these, more than 10% will be fast charging points. The MELIB network currently has 1,074 charging points in the Balearic Islands.
Connection problem
In response to this user’s complaints, the Formentera Council explained that, in the case of the inoperative charger, one tower is not working due to a connection problem. The app always shows the real-time status of which points are working and which are not. The Mobility Department is currently working to resolve the issue.
Regarding the tower supposedly reserved for «private use», sources at the Council explained that it does not appear in the app because it is indeed reserved for recharging the island institution’s official transport. ‘The Mobility Department is waiting for MELIB to put the updated stickers on all the charging towers,’ they concluded.
If you have experienced a similar situation or would like to report another case related to Ibiza and Formentera, you can send an email to: redaccion@periodicodeibiza.es or call 971 190 543.