Charging infrastructure

The Dutch infrastructure for the supply of electric energy is of high quality and superior performance. The infrastructure for charging electric vehicles (EV’s) is well organised. Private and public parties have created an open and competitive market model for the development of the EV charging infrastructure. The Netherlands has made national agreements on interoperability, corresponding to European standards. Many charging systems in use in the Netherlands have been interoperable since the beginning of 2011. Since then, the amount of public charing points has grown to over 110,000 at the end of November 2022.

Lower cost
An for this achievement important organisation is the National Charging Infrastructure Knowledge Platform Foundation (NKL). The NKL’s goal is to lower the cost of public infrastructure for all stakeholders through shared projects. To that end, the foundation is working to optimise the installation process, which involves the distribution system operator, charging point operator, and municipality.

Fast charging
Also a network of fast-charging stations is being rolled out along Dutch highways. Many regional governments, cities, and companies now provide EV fast chargers in parking lots. The Netherlands has selected fast charging as a necessary option to complete the country’s charging infrastructure. Almost 3,250 fast charging points are available by the end of November 2022 throughout the Netherlands.

Significant growth
Following the EV trend, the number of charging stations has grown significantly. Aside from a number of public and semi-public charging stations which are easy to monitor, there are also private charging stations. The number of private charging stations has grown from approximately 63,000 at the end of 2016 to over 335,000 at the end of November 2022. Altogether the Dutch EV charging infrastructure grew substantially in the past few years.

National Charging Infrastructure Agenda
The Dutch Climate Agreement aspires all new passenger cars to be zero emission by 2030. By then, the Netherlands is expected to have 1.9 million electric passenger vehicles. On top of that there will be electric buses, vans, trucks, inland ships and light electric vehicles. The Netherlands has one of the most dense charging networks in the world and is a European leader in electric driving. The Netherlands is ambitiously aiming to maintain this position, and to extend it for all electric mobility. In order to provide electricity for a growing number of electric vehicles, the availability of charging locations must increase accordingly. The Dutch National Charging Infrastructure Agenda is working to meet this demand.