Another €30M for national electric car charging network

The government officially teamed up with provinces, municipalities and grid operators to achieve a national electric car charging network. The government is pushing 15 million euros into this project, and the six regions involved are matching that amount.

According to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, working together saves money and time, and provides uniformity and clarity for the users . By working together, not every municipality needs to acquire specialist knowledge on how and where to install charging stations, for example. They can also tender together, saving money on construction. And having one overarching plan ensures that charging points are placed quickly and in logical locations.

"Electric driving has many advantages. To make maximum use of it, you must be able to rely on the fact that you can easily charge your car anywhere in the Netherlands," State Secretary Stientje van Veldhoven of Infrastructure said. "That will require a lot of work in the coming year. That is why I think it is great that together with municipalities, provinces and grid operators, we are now taking this step towards a nationwide network of charging stations."

The government's goal is for all new cars on the road to be electric by 2030. The Ministry estimates that around 1.9 million electric cars will be driven in the Netherlands in that year, and that will require about 1.7 million charging points. In order to reach that number, an estimated 213 new charging points will have to be installed per working day next year, and 550 per working day in 2025.

30 million euros will not be enough to install that many charging points. A large part of the costs will be covered by charging station providers.