The Canary Islands, at the growing tail of automatic gas stations

The increase in these stations could slow down in the coming years due to the new barriers that are being approved by some municipalities to prevent the implementation of this business model

The Canary Islands is the autonomous community in which automatic gas stations have grown the least
since the pandemic with barely 4.5%, according to the study carried out by the National Association of Automatic Service Stations (Aesae).

Automatic gas stations have grown by 49% in Spain since March 2020, with more than
1,900 refueling pointsas it constitutes a cheaper alternative.

Thus, these stations supposed in
2022 18.3% of the Spanish market, four percentage points above the data for March 2021, and close to 13.5% of them corresponded to traditional gas station brands.

Despite the economic uncertainty caused by the
inflation and the crisis energy, supply points have continued to be developed throughout the Spanish geography and the conversion of traditional gas stations to the automatic model has increased, seeking greater efficiency”, said the president of Aesae, Manuel Jiménez.

Automatics grow 155% in Galicia and Cantabria

Catalonia was the region with the highest penetration of this type of gas station in 2022, since automatic ones accounted for 31.4% of the total. Along with it, only the Valencian Community (24.5%) and the Madrid Community (21.3%) were above the national average. On the opposite side they found
Canary Islands (4.5%)Navarre (9%) and the Balearic Islands (11%).

In terms of growth, Galicia and Cantabria were the communities in which the most automatic petrol stations were established, with a year-on-year increase of 155%, followed by Asturias (+123%) and Murcia (+100%). On the other hand, the Basque Country (+24%), La Rioja (+30%) and the Valencian Community (+35%) registered the smallest increases.

Threats to growth

Despite the progress registered in 2022,
«Spain is still far away of leading countries in the opening and liberalization of the fuel market, such as Denmark or Finland, where of the total number of gas stations, automatic ones exceed 60%”, stated the president of Aesae.

In addition, from the association they have asked for caution considering that the growth of these stations could slow down in the
next years because of the new barriers that some town councils are approving to prevent the implementation of this business model.

Between the
restrictions mentioned by Aesae is the imposition of minimum distances between the new automatic gas stations and nearby buildings. The association has pointed to the municipalities of Alicante and Santander as the last to impose barriers to the free market in the fuel sector.

“It is likely that this year obstacles will arise again in different town halls, but we are optimistic in addressing these obstacles, since we have more and more precedents to get the Justice to agree with us,” Jiménez explained.