Explainable difference, but still work to be done
There are many more public charging stations in the west and center of the Netherlands than in the north, east or south of the Netherlands. Not only in total, but also per household and even per registered electric car. That may seem unfair, but the differences are largely explicable. Nevertheless, the National Charging Infrastructure Agenda is pleased with the 90 million euros that the government will make available for the expansion of the network in the coming years.
Following the news that the government will allocate €90 million for the expansion of the public charging station network in the coming years, NOS and the regional broadcasters analyzed the current state of affairs with regard to public charging stations. The collaboration did this on the basis of data from the National Charging Infrastructure Agenda (NAL). What seems? The public charging stations are rather unevenly distributed across the Netherlands.
Especially in North Holland, South Holland and Utrecht you will find many more poles than in Groningen or Limburg, for example. In other words: the further you go from the western and central Netherlands, the fewer charging stations you will find. This applies to both the absolute numbers and the relative ones. You will also find a lot less public poles per household and per registered electric car in the outer parts of the Netherlands. For example, in Drenthe, Friesland and Limburg there are 10.6, 10.1 and 8.3 EVs per public charging station respectively, while in Utrecht, North Holland and South Holland there are 5.6, 4.6 and 3.9 EVs. per public charging station. The number of charging stations per household shows the same inequality.
Correct difference
This inequality is not unjustified, according to comments by Roland Ferwerda, the director of the NAL. For example, in the west you will find more companies that employ ‘electric’ lease drivers (as a result of which the charging network had to develop faster), people outside the Randstad often have more space for their own charging point and are on average less prosperous, which means that an EV is even more expensive. often out of budget range. We would therefore not be surprised if in practice it is regularly more difficult to find a charging point in the heart of Amsterdam than in Veendam – just to name a few.
However, there is still work to be done, especially in the provinces. Why there? Well now, the NAL has as a starting point that in every part of the Netherlands of 500 by 500 meters with at least 125 inhabitants, there is at least one public charging station. In ‘the region’ this is even less often the case than in the Randstad provinces. With the help of the €90 million that has now been reserved, the organization hopes that this will change soon.
There are already European plans for charging stations along the highways, so that from 2027 you will find a charging station there every 60 kilometers.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl