Our lives are inextricably linked to energy. Even when we rest, we make use of resources that have a lot to do with the development of our societies but also require us to reflect on how we can rationalize their use and environmental impact.
Heating, electricity and fuel costs have long been one of the main challenges in family budgets, which are increasingly difficult to balance, in a context as complex as the current one. Repsol, which was the first company to offer additional discounts at service stations in March 2022, is launching an initiative in which it introduces savings formulas and contributes to decarbonisation thanks to the addition of energies.
“We want to give our customers a global energy solution to make their day-to-day life easier, connecting the energy that drives our cars with all the energy in the home: light, heating and solar. We respond to their needs and help them save”, explains Valero Marín, General Director of Clients at Repsol.
And it does so under a model that, although it retains the popular discount for motorists, includes the full range of energy options for a customer community that, for the first time in Spain, can simplify and unify services with a single provider.
When the state rebate for fuel purchased by individuals ended at the end of 2022, the multinational extended its discount of 10 euro cents per liter until the end of March 2023. And now it announces its ‘Energy Plans’ that will save up to 20 cents in euro per liter of gasoline and up to 100 percent of the electric charge.
Under the slogan ‘Connected Energy’, the initiative links balance discounts through the Waylet application to the use of service stations (Car Plan), which are increasing with the contracting of other services such as energy products, electricity (Plan car-light), gas (car-light-heating plan), or solar energy (solar energy plan). “We want to strengthen ties with our customers and better understand their needs,” explains Marín about an offer that is based on a simple rule: the greater the relationship with Repsol, the greater the benefits.
There are four main plans whose savings scale depending on the products contracted, from a five euro cent discount per liter of fuel and three percent of electric recharges exclusively for service station users to 20 euro cents per liter and Free recharges for those customers who, in addition to refueling or recharging their vehicle batteries, have contracted electricity and gas services with the company and have installed or have joined its self-consumption initiatives.
These savings plans will focus on the digital channel of its popular payment application Waylet, which already has a valuable community of more than six million users in Spain -more than the combined population of the cities of Madrid and Barcelona- with the that interacts directly.
The savings generated can be used in future payments, both at service stations and electric recharging points, as well as on Repsol electricity and gas bills, on the purchase of butane cylinders, diesel orders, gift cards and any of the other more than 4,400 establishments attached to Waylet.
Along with the offer, it has also designed a specific customer area on its website to further simplify and personalize management. In this space, Repsol will bring together all the consulting services, savings calculator and energy advice through a dedicated blog. In addition, these Energy Plans will be accompanied by a global communication campaign and image elements will be displayed throughout the network of service stations to make the initiative known to their customers from April 1.
Since fuel prices skyrocketed in March 2022, Repsol has been applying additional discounts to its customers which, according to Marín, have generated estimated savings of around 500 million euros charged to their margins. “We are very aware of our role in society. We want to make profitability and commitments to shareholders compatible with a contribution to a better and more sustainable future”, he explains.
With high inflation rates and rising interest rates, the new offer comes at a time when fuel prices have fallen compared to those registered a year ago, when international prices reached maximum levels as a result of the Russian invasion in the Ukraine and the increase in demand. “In Spain, what really determines the price of fuels is not crude oil, but the international price of fuels, which are different markets, and taxes, which in our country account for almost half of the final sale price,” says the executive.
