‘We will not save more than 1 million public charging stations in 2030’
More electric cars mean a greater need for public charging points. In 2030 there must be more than 1 million in the Netherlands, already ‘world champion charging stations’. The Dutch municipalities bear responsibility for a large part of this, but they do so in such a way that a shortage of charging stations is imminent. Three charging station operators warn against this.
To ensure that the Netherlands has enough public charging stations in 2030 to support the growing popularity of electric cars, municipalities must cooperate more. That is the purport of a cry from three major operators of public charging stations, as reported by platform for business mobility Fleet & Mobility. Park&Charge, Opcharge and CityCharge believe that municipalities now too often grant ‘exclusive’ concessions for the installation of charging points.
From the point of view of the municipality, it is an understandable procedure. By appointing one contractor for the installation of charging stations in a specific area, the contractor and municipality clearly know what costs and benefits they are ready for. But according to the three charging point operators mentioned, it means that the expansion of the charging point network is not going fast enough.
Ten times as much
There are currently more than 100,000 public charging points in the Netherlands and dozens are added every day. It has to be, because it is said that more than 1 million will be needed by 2030. The number of charging points must therefore increase tenfold in seven years’ time, while the Netherlands already has a relatively large number of charging points. According to Park&Charge and competitors, the municipalities – often responsible for the installation of charging stations – will not be able to complete this considerable task unless they change their working methods. The operators say they want to talk to municipalities about regulations and working methods in the short term, in order to prevent an imminent charging point shortage as much as possible.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl