Electric car charging costs vary drastically across Dutch cities

The use of public electric car charging points can be considerably more expensive in some parts of the Netherlands than others, according to price comparison website Independer. The national average is 36 cents per kilowatt hour, but the price is 75 percent higher in the municipality of Súdwest-Fryslân, where drivers pay 63 cents.

The prices are also high in the Zeeland municipalities of Sluis and Terneuzen, where drivers cough up 51 cents per kilowatt hour on average. In Noord-Brabant, the highest price is in Alphen-Chaam, which is fourth highest nationally, followed closely by Hulst in Zeeland. The Zuid-Holland cities of Albrandswaard and Hoeksche Waard ranked sixth and seventh priciest, ahead of Zandvoort, Noord-Holland.

The price difference is huge when looking at the cheapest municipalities. Drivers in Amsterdam and The Hague pay only 27 cents per kilowatt hour. It even falls as low as 24 cents on the island of Ameland, and in both the Zuid-Holland town Teylingen and Opsterland, Friesland.

For its study, Independer did not take rapid charging stations into consideration. Despite this, drivers in Zeeland pay about 30 percent more than the national average at public charging stations.

Motorists there pay an average of 47 cents per kilowatt hour, the highest rate per province. Rates also rose above average in Friesland, Utrecht, Flevoland, Noord-Brabant and Zuid-Holland.

Anyone willing to pay a bit more to park in a garage than on a public road may also be able to find rates that are below average compared to the surrounding area. “To know whether it is actually cheaper if you charge in a parking garage, you have to weigh both costs against each other,” said Joris Kerkhof, an energy price analyst at Independer.