The Municipality of Eindhoven hopes that there is a more elegant solution for creating charging places in the city and is looking at lampposts for this.
In the Netherlands, the number of charging points for electric cars has grown at an absurd pace and not everyone is enthusiastic about that. The PvdA in Eindhoven would like to see no further ‘proliferation’ of charging places taking place and the Municipal Executive will consider this. They want to look at ways to blend it more elegantly into the street scene. The idea that is emerging is the integration of charging points in lamp posts. That message it Algemeen Dagblad.
That proposal also comes from the local PvdA party and, according to the municipal council, has now been submitted to potential suppliers. They will look at options for equipping existing or new lamp posts in such a way that cars can be charged. Two important pitfalls that have been mentioned are the power supply and the management of lamp posts. The municipality does not want to be responsible for the management of the charging points, but rather to outsource it to commercial parties who must also ensure that there is a power supply tailored to EVs in the poles.
In addition to lampposts, the idea is also being suggested to use power boxes. To what extent this is realistic remains to be seen. Incidentally, a company in Great Britain has already come up with another elegant yet quite complicated solution: recessed charging stations. When the pole is not in use, it sinks into the ground. That way it won’t become a ‘pole jungle’ in the city.