Now that electric cars have made their breakthrough in all their frenzy, the charging network, although the Netherlands has the best infrastructure in the world, is quickly coming under pressure. How long can it cope with this growth and will it ever be possible to provide all those EVs with truly green power? We ask NewMotion and TSG, two major market parties in this branch of sport.
Arjan Keizer is chief strategy officer at NewMotion. “We have been around for ten years now,” he says. “We have been part of Shell since 2017 and provide charging solutions for companies and consumers. In doing so, we focus on charging points at people’s homes and on company sites, and charging cards for on the road, which you can use at AC chargers and fast chargers along the highway throughout Europe. We mainly focus on the lease companies, which sell a large proportion of EVs in the Netherlands, but also on the car manufacturers to be recommended to the private buyer via the dealer. We can take care of the installation of the charging station, but also for services, so a total solution. ” NewMotion does not include public charging stations in the package. “In addition, Shell offers fast charging at the petrol stations with Shell Recharge. For this we provide the 175 kW fast chargers. That are a lot less than the normal public charging points, but they are exactly the points you need. ”
NewMotion has teamed up with FCA. What is the purpose of such a partnership?
“Fiat wants to offer a charging solution to its customers, so that they can charge without problems after they have bought an electric car. Ultimately, that is the most important condition for everyone to make the transition. We already do this for Volvo, BMW, Renault and Nissan and now FCA is also following for business cars such as delivery vans. With ten years of experience, we have the necessary expertise in-house. Think of smart charging with dynamic power management, which adjusts the speed of the charging station to the rest of your electricity consumption at that moment. These kinds of solutions are quite complex, car manufacturers do not have that in-house, so we do that for them. In turn, we are expanding our market share, so that we can contribute even better to a sustainable world. ”
The merger of FCA with PSA was good news for you?
“The question is what will come out. In theory, Stellantis is a great opportunity. We are now working on FCA and it remains to be seen whether that merger means expansion for us. PSA of course already has its own suppliers. So it is up to us to provide our EV drivers with the best experience to ensure that Stellantis also decides to purchase our solution for all their brands. ”
The share of electric kilometers is currently growing rapidly, while most of the electricity is still generated from fossil fuels. To what extent are we capableto provide all those electric vehicles with sustainable power in the long term?
“From the start we only sell smart charging points, unlike what was the norm until recently in Germany and England, for example. Such a charging point is connected to the internet and is therefore able to charge faster or not at all, depending on the availability of sustainable energy. We are currently conducting a pilot with Tennet for this. We look at how much green electricity is available for the number of cars that have to charge and we optimize the charging moment, so that maximum use can be made of renewable energy. Most people drive a maximum of 50 kilometers per day. That is 10 kWh, while a battery is 40 to 80 kWh. So we only have to charge a small part of that battery per day, while the car is parked from six in the evening to eight in the morning, now with corona even longer. A home charger with 11 kW charging speed offers enough power to be charged in an hour. If you do that hour exactly in the middle of the night when there is a lot of wind and no washing machines are on, you can charge in a much more sustainable way than the average of the currently generated energy. That is why it is so good that from now on only smart charging points can be installed in England. In the Netherlands there are only smart charging points, if only because of the lease drivers who can automatically get their charging costs reimbursed. But it is also better for private individuals to charge smartly. ”
Green or not, is there enough electricity?
“Nationally, the energy capacity is sufficient, as long as not everyone starts charging at the same time, for example at six o’clock in the evening. Local problems can arise. For example, in a parking garage in an old city center: you cannot just install a hundred charging points there, the network is not designed for that. We can solve that with what we call Dynamic Power Sharing. Suppose ten cars are plugged in and an eleventh is added, then they all charge just a bit slower, until the first is full and extra speed becomes available again. Until about 2030, we will come a long way with this solution, after which the electricity network will have to be strengthened here and there. Not only at parking garages in older cities, but also at tourist information centers and fast chargers along the highway. You can’t just put fifty fast chargers anywhere, you need a decent network upgrade there. That is already a huge challenge and there are long waiting times for it. On the other hand, if you see how those fast chargers are used throughout the day, in some cases you can also put batteries in addition. When it is quiet, you recharge those batteries, with which you can recharge cars during peak times. It is important that good solutions are found for this. Limited grid capacity should not become a bottleneck in the transition. ”
How do you see the world in ten years?
“I expect a lot more EVs than people already expect. Over the past two years, we have already seen things go faster. In 2030, only electric cars may be sold, so that means enormous market growth. By then there will also be a wide range of used EVs, which will increase private sales. In addition, cities such as Amsterdam are introducing measures to ban fuel cars. In addition, batteries will be much cheaper in a few years, so that it will be cheaper to drive electrically. Who will then buy a new petrol car? I expect that by 2030 half of the cars in our country will be fully electric. What is now sold new on petrol will still be there, but some will also be exported. In addition, car sharing will certainly have taken off in the cities. Especially now that we have seen through corona that we do not necessarily have to go to the office every day. ”
Chicken and egg
TSG (Technical Services Solutions Group) is a company that mainly sells and maintains petrol pumps, but it is now in the middle of the transition to electric driving. We speak with Peter Bal, who takes care of sales in the Netherlands, and Arie Bal, who is in charge of the service department. Peter: “Ultimately, it is the chicken and egg story: we want the electric car, but then there must be charging points. We want to install charging stations, but then there must be enough electric cars. There is pressure on this from both sides. Consumers are starting to get convinced, but I also notice that there are fleet managers – even ours, until a few months ago! – who claim that an electric car is more expensive in total cost of ownership than a petrol car. If I then enter into a discussion about that, I get arguments such as higher tire wear. Of course, if you keep driving your Tesla full throttle, they wear out faster. But we have to drive normally and that happens. Moreover, there are now plenty of nice electric cars with less power. Think of the MG ZS EV, Volkswagen ID.3 and 4 and the Renault Zoe. That is going fast and we should be able to convince more people. Fleet managers in particular play an important role in this. ”
Surely we as the Netherlands are the best boy in the class with our infrastructure? Compare it for example with Germany …
Arie Bal: “Our German colleagues are really catching up. Somewhere at the beginning of last year, a button was switched there. ” Peter Bal continues: “If you look at the number of petrol stations in the Netherlands, more than 4,000, there is still a long way to go. It is true that there are many more charging stations, but you have to compare a petrol station with a charging plaza. After all, you will be at a stake much longer. Even with my Tesla, I am on a supercharger for an average of 15 to 20 minutes, and then you still talk about 150 kW. There must be a million charging points in 2030, so there are decent numbers that still have to be installed. I myself still experience a shortage of charging options. My Tesla indicates how many charging points are free, but I have seen that I arrived and everything was taken and five people were waiting in front of me. This shows that a change is taking place and that there is therefore scarcity. I think you should always be able to find a supercharger within 50 kilometers. That is far from being the case. Moreover, it should be in combination with something else where possible, where you can do something in the meantime. Even with 350 kW it will take you a while, depending on the car. There is still room for improvement there. I don’t really think a gas station of today is a nice place to spend a while, but we can change that. With our POS systems we are now also working on a link between the catering function and the charging station, so that you can bring in the electric driver for coffee or a sandwich. ”
According to Peter Bal, the fast charger remains crucial, despite increasing range: “People have a connection at home or in the street, but the mains can only be used up to a certain maximum. If the majority of them will drive electrically, you will run into that. Unless the entire infrastructure changes. That is why I see a very bright future for a mobility service center with things like catering, washing facilities, air pump and everything that goes with it. Such charging plazas on the outskirts of the cities will certainly be put to good use, but you still need to get the power there. It is already available at petrol stations. ”