The availability of public charging points leaves much to be desired, according to research by Enpuls. In a significant part of the Netherlands, there is a good chance that you will miss the point if you want to use a public charging station.
The study shows that public charging points have been installed in the 5,000 of the 13,208 ‘neighborhoods’ in the Netherlands. The problem is that those areas are very busy; 70 percent of the Dutch population lives there. In practice, according to the researchers, this means that there is a charging station shortage in 36 percent of those neighborhoods. There are now (2019) roughly four electric cars in the Netherlands per public charging station. In 2017, that was slightly more than one car per pole.
The ‘boost pressure’ in the Netherlands
The National Agenda for Charging Infrastructure aims for a number of public charging points by 2030, which should ensure a distribution of one public charging station per five EVs, but according to the researchers, we have almost reached that ratio this year. In the years that followed, the congestion per charging station will increase if no adjustments are made. It is argued that too much is still based on the principle ‘pole follows car’, instead of the other way around.
It is therefore urgent, not surprisingly, that the number of public charging points should be expanded. Enpuls expects that every Dutch person will want to drive electrically by 2025. That seems somewhat optimistic, but in view of the increase in the number of plug-in cars, expanding the charging network is no superfluous luxury. In doing so, one also relies somewhat on the responsibility of EV drivers themselves. According to the researchers, it is still too rare for owners to request a public charging station when purchasing an electric car. As a result, it is not always clear to municipalities how many posts are needed per neighborhood. According to Enpuls, a ‘data-driven approach’ can also help, whereby a decision is made on the basis of measured charging station pressure in a neighborhood whether more poles should be added.