Amsterdam to double electric car charging stations to 4,000

The city of Amsterdam plans to increase the number of charging points for electric cars in the city from the current 1,300 to 4 thousand in 2018, the municipality announced in a press release on Friday.

Companies can submit tenders for the operation of the charging network from Friday. The municipality will announce which companies will receive the contract by the end of the year. Tenders should pay attention to ease of use, good service, technical innovation such as "smart charging" and financial viability.

"Amsterdam is a leader in the field of electric vehicles, and that it will remain for some time." Alderman Abdeluheb Choho of Sustainability said. "Electric transport makes for cleaner and therefore healthier air for everyone in Amsterdam. By now giving the command to extend the charging network further, everyone must be able to drive electric by 2025."

In the past five years Amsterdam has been placing public charging points for electric cars based on demand. The Amsterdam charging network has now grown to more than 1,300 charging stations where nearly 1.5 million clean kilometers are charged by 5 thousand unique users on a monthly basis. A quarter of all Dutch electric drivers have charged their cars on the Amsterdam network at least once.

This extension of the Amsterdam electric car charging station network forms part of the Agenda Sustainable Amsterdam, which was unanimously accepted by the City Council on March 11th. The Amsterdam college wants to accelerate the sustainability of the city. The city aims to have 20 percent more renewable energy and 20 percent less energy consumption in Amsterdam by 2020. Concrete plans to achieve this includes accelerating the connection of existing homes to district heating, further promoting electric vehicles, smart distribution and the expansion of the environmental zone.