Angel Aghili is a visionary: he was able to recognise the future of cars when nobody else in the world of motoring was talking about anything other than petrol. He is currently the president of the European Association for Battery, Hybrid and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (Avere), a technological lobby created in 1978 which is involved in developing sustainable mobility in the countries of the EU. The association has a base on the Costa del Sol.

–What do you think about the ‘Zem2All’ project, designed to introduce electric cars into Malaga?

–It is a very novel business and marketing model. The council has told me there is a waiting list for electric cars and that is very good; it is a success for Malaga. Avele (the Spanish subsidiary) organised the EVS27 conference about electric mobility in Barcelona, with 1,300 scientists from all over the world and nearly 4,000 people attending. The world association voted Malaga as the European city which has most boosted the idea of electric mobility. The city has worked hard on this.

–Does electric mobility have a future in Europe?

–It has a present and a future, definitely. Now above all with the hybrids: the sales in the USA have gone up by 83 per cent in comparison with 2012, and Europe cannot be left behind. These days people complain that electric cars have no autonomy, but we have hybrids that can be plugged in: you charge the battery and you can travel up to 80 kilometres in a city. And to go to Madrid you have a thousand kilometres of autonomy. What more do we want? I believe this is the present. In Germany there are already 1,100 hybrid taxis, and when you talk to the drivers they say they are making money. This means that the economy is improving and emissions are reducing. Everybody wins.

–And the purely electric cars?

–With the purely electric ones we hope the autonomy will increase, when there is a massive production in the battery industry. I always keep mobile phones in mind: ten years ago, the batteries were very big, but nowadays nobody thinks about the battery of their mobile. Technology doesn’t stop; when you compare what things were like 20 or 30 years ago everything has been worthwhile, barriers are being broken. We hope that the capacity of the batteries will continue to increase. And I always say, thanks to China too, and to Mother Nature for not having much oil. Twenty years ago there were 8,000 cars on the roads in China and now there are nearly 80 million. As they have no oil they are encouraging electric mobility. Thanks to them, the electric scooter is becoming popular. I’ve had one for five years and it works perfectly.

–What work does Avere do?

–It is a lobby that pushes for energy independence in Europe. For us it is quite clear: the subject of energy independence is an important pillar of the economic crisis. Electric mobility is a means of solving this. It has so many advantages! The gas lobby is saying that the energy production for an electric car is equal to that of a normal one, but you have to look beyond that, at where this is going. Avere was created in 1978, so we are 35 years old. At that time many people called us dreamers, said we were crazy. But technology has proved us right.