Amsterdam supports electric transport

Amsterdam electric with a number of partners, is a project of the municipality of Amsterdam that aims to stimulate frequent business drivers (such as taxis and vans) to switch to electric vehicles and further expand the network of public charging points. The aim is to give electric transport a strong stimulus.



Subsidy scheme



The City of Amsterdam has reserved 8.6 million euro's until the end of 2015 to make high-mileage corporate vehicles, like trucks, lorries, couriers and taxis more environmentally friendly. An annual subsidy budget will be allocated to each category so that funds will also be available after 2012 to purchase electric vehicles.



Approximately 6,000 lorries, 37,000 delivery vehicles, 600 vans, 2,500 taxis and 5,000 private cars account for a high percentage of the miles driven in the city. The average taxi contributes nearly 35 times more to the nitrogen dioxide concentration in the city than the average private car.



The results of a 2009 subsidy scheme to facilitate the purchase of 260 electric vehicles highlight how effective subsidies can be. For the 2009 subsidy scheme, the city made 3 million euro's available, facilitating the purchase of 200 electric vehicles, including 18 Tesla Roadsters. Businesses themselves invested a further 9 million euro's to buy new vehicles.



The scheme is part of the 'Clean air for Amsterdam' action plan, drafted in order to ensure that Amsterdam meets the European Union standards for air quality by 2015. It is vital that the nitrogen dioxide and pollution levels are lowered in order to help improve the health of people in the city. If the air quality in Amsterdam does not improve, a building freeze may come into effect for major projects.



Infrastructure



Amsterdam established a charging infrastructure that is publically accessible. The city has negotiated with Nuon/Heijmans and Essent on hardware, locations, density and roll-out of the charging infrastructure as well as its correct installation, service and maintenance.



Amsterdam has over 300 public charging points for electric vehicles and this number is growing rapidly. By 2013 there will be 1.000 public charging points.



Information on where these charging points are and if they are available for charging, is as of now in real-time, accessible via an open API. This makes the Amsterdam EV charging network the first worldwide to provide this information in real-time and as open data.



The city plans to be fully electric by 2040.