Netherlands now has more than 500,000 electric car charging points, says new report

The Netherlands has passed the milestone of 500,000 electric car charging points, said the Dutch National Charging Infrastructure Agenda (NAL). The organization presented a progress report about the situation on Monday to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Parliament.

"We are well on track. The Netherlands is one of the frontrunners in Europe when it comes to charging infrastructure. But there are also challenges," said NAL Chair Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy in the report.

There were 518,000 charging points in the Netherlands at the end of April, the NAL said. These include private points, public and semi-public charging stations at offices, business parks and supermarkets, and rapid charging points along motorways. The vast majority of 384,200 are charging stations at residences, according to the NAL, which in its own words "has the task of realizing sufficient charging infrastructure so that a rapid transition to electric transport is made possible".

But there are still challenges. "The growth of electric transport is increasing every year. Sufficient capacity is a concern, particularly with the roll-out of fast chargers and charging options for heavy transport. Governments and grid network operators are doing a lot nationally and regionally to use and expand capacity in a smarter way. Those interests for mobility should be more firmly anchored in decision-making," Gerbrandy said.

The organization pointed to bottlenecks, such as the need to accelerate the pace of installation. But network congestion, or shortage of supply and demand on the electricity network, is also a bottleneck for the realization of a nationwide network of charging points in 2025, according to the NAL.

The NAL also pointed to the costs, because electric driving has become economically less attractive than driving a fossil fuel car due to the energy crisis. The organization stated that electric driving should be financially more attractive than driving on petrol or diesel, and has asked the Cabinet to enact measures to realize this.

"Due to the energy crisis, charging a car has sometimes become two to three times more expensive. The disappearance of tax incentives after 2025 and the higher motor vehicle tax due to the higher weight of electric cars will further exacerbate that effect. Without measures that place the electric car as more financially attractive with regard to fossil fuel engines, the Cabinet's climate goals with regard to mobility could be seriously jeopardized," said Gerbrandy.