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As someone who lived in Amsterdam for one year (I'm originally from Israel) I was extremely impressed by how the government create a solid infrastructure for e

As someone who lived in Amsterdam for one year (I'm originally from Israel) I was extremely impressed by how the government create a solid infrastructure for electric car owners to charge their car batteries.

vinay427 7y ago
Hmm, how does this work? I imagine the government isn't in the business of operating charging stations, so it is some combination of subsidies and regulatory easing, or something more? Do they benefit Tesla Superchargers or have other EV charging standards capitalized on it as well?
- Yuval_Halevi 7y ago
  You can find every this everywhere https://imgur.com/a/yH2qnnR https://imgur.com/a/yH2qnnR It's not my car... I had humble bikes :)
  - vinay427 7y ago
    Unfortunately the actual image doesn't seem to load for me.
    - vinay427 7y ago
      EDIT: It now works. Not sure what was up before. Thanks, this makes sense and looks really seamless!
- Iv 7y ago
  > I imagine the government isn't in the business of operating charging stations Why not? Governments take care of a lot of public infrastructure, either directly through public workers or by paying private companies to do the work for them
  - vinay427 7y ago
    I understand that a government can do this. I'm saying that I assumed this isn't the case here based on what I know about the Netherlands, fossil fuel stations, etc. Do you have information claiming otherwise?
- avar 7y ago
  Someone else posted a picture already, but The Netherlands has a nationwide network of municipal-run charging stations. In Amsterdam they're placed in the middle of two parking spaces and have two sockets that service those two spaces, which are reserved for EV charging. If you buy an EV you can ask the municipality to install more of these parking spots, and depending on existing saturation they will. You get an RFID card that you hold up to the charging station to activate it, and you're then charged for its use. Here's more details: https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/parking/electric-charging/ https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/parking/electric-charging/
- Fronzie 7y ago
  The country works together with private business to promote the charging stations. The country office provides an overview of where they are, but the ownership of the stations is private. Details (in dutch) https://www.eindhoven.nl/stad-en-wonen/stad/parkeren/oplaadpalen-voor-elektrische-autos https://www.eindhoven.nl/stad-en-wonen/stad/parkeren/oplaadp... An overview, together with if they're currently occupied: https://oplaadpalen.nl/ https://oplaadpalen.nl/
  - Maarten88 7y ago
    Since we are on Hacker News, let me promote the startup that built this and provides the realtime chargepoint data: Eco-Movement[1]. They have expanded out of the Netherlands and now provide this data europe-wide[2]. I think this is a good illustration how forward thinking government policies (incentivise electric car use) can drive new business in a country or state. [1] https://www.eco-movement.com https://www.eco-movement.com [2] https://chargepointsmap.eu https://chargepointsmap.eu
- jillesvangurp 7y ago
  It's a combination of tax incentives, permits, active relations between planning bodies and the industry, and some subsidies. The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world so any kind of construction work generally involves permits and negotiations with governments about how and what. Permits come with strings attached and this is how governments can nudge the private sector the way it wants to go. EVs and clean energy are popular topics for planning bodies. It makes everybody look good. When something new gets planned, questions need to be answered about this (and a lot of other topics) and having solutions in your plan generally helps getting those plans approved and probably also unlocks some nice subsidies. So, a real estate developer planning some new housing, roadwork, industrial estate, or whatever is going to have a big incentive to have some charging infrastructure built into the plans from day one. For the same reasons the Netherlands is one of the safest places to ride a bike because any roadworks in the last 50 years had some explicit planning for improving bike safety. There's not a single road that gets built without that being a topic of attention and scrutiny.
buboard 7y ago
That sounds a bit like they are solving rich people's problems
- hnarn 7y ago
  Solving EV problems is a hard equal to solving rich people problems as long as EV:s aren't affordable, but hopefully they will be in a near future, and hopefully our consumer patterns in general will also change by that point to ease the transition into an economy less dependent on fossil fuel.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- avocado4 7y ago
  Climate change is primarily hitting the poorest of the world.
  - rumanator 7y ago
    The Netherlands is famous for being below sea level. I'm sure they have a dog in the race regarding rising sea levels.
    - jacquesm 7y ago
      NL is like a machine in the sense that keeping the water out requires constant work and energy. Water is pumped out at a stupendous rate, if not for that the country would revert to being mostly a large lake in a decade or two.
- rumanator 7y ago
  Reducing their oil dependency is something that doesn't benefit only "the rich", or any other political strawan. In addition, perhaps it's time to shed that miopic view on life that leads you to wrongly interpret anything that you believe benefits someone else as an attack on your personal interests.
systemtest 7y ago
I'm skeptical. There is a charging spot in front of my door. I can't use it because I don't have a parking permit. I don't have a parking permit because I have a parking spot of my own. The parking spot is 50 meters from my home and installing a charging spot would be close to €10.000 because they would have to repave the asphalt road that it crosses. I gave up.

vinay427 7y ago

Hmm, how does this work? I imagine the government isn't in the business of operating charging stations, so it is some combination of subsidies and regulatory easing, or something more? Do they benefit Tesla Superchargers or have other EV charging standards capitalized on it as well?

Yuval_Halevi 7y ago
You can find every this everywhere https://imgur.com/a/yH2qnnR https://imgur.com/a/yH2qnnR It's not my car... I had humble bikes :)
- vinay427 7y ago
  Unfortunately the actual image doesn't seem to load for me.
  - vinay427 7y ago
    EDIT: It now works. Not sure what was up before. Thanks, this makes sense and looks really seamless!
Iv 7y ago
> I imagine the government isn't in the business of operating charging stations Why not? Governments take care of a lot of public infrastructure, either directly through public workers or by paying private companies to do the work for them
- vinay427 7y ago
  I understand that a government can do this. I'm saying that I assumed this isn't the case here based on what I know about the Netherlands, fossil fuel stations, etc. Do you have information claiming otherwise?
avar 7y ago
Someone else posted a picture already, but The Netherlands has a nationwide network of municipal-run charging stations. In Amsterdam they're placed in the middle of two parking spaces and have two sockets that service those two spaces, which are reserved for EV charging. If you buy an EV you can ask the municipality to install more of these parking spots, and depending on existing saturation they will. You get an RFID card that you hold up to the charging station to activate it, and you're then charged for its use. Here's more details: https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/parking/electric-charging/ https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/parking/electric-charging/
Fronzie 7y ago
The country works together with private business to promote the charging stations. The country office provides an overview of where they are, but the ownership of the stations is private. Details (in dutch) https://www.eindhoven.nl/stad-en-wonen/stad/parkeren/oplaadpalen-voor-elektrische-autos https://www.eindhoven.nl/stad-en-wonen/stad/parkeren/oplaadp... An overview, together with if they're currently occupied: https://oplaadpalen.nl/ https://oplaadpalen.nl/
- Maarten88 7y ago
  Since we are on Hacker News, let me promote the startup that built this and provides the realtime chargepoint data: Eco-Movement[1]. They have expanded out of the Netherlands and now provide this data europe-wide[2]. I think this is a good illustration how forward thinking government policies (incentivise electric car use) can drive new business in a country or state. [1] https://www.eco-movement.com https://www.eco-movement.com [2] https://chargepointsmap.eu https://chargepointsmap.eu
jillesvangurp 7y ago
It's a combination of tax incentives, permits, active relations between planning bodies and the industry, and some subsidies. The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world so any kind of construction work generally involves permits and negotiations with governments about how and what. Permits come with strings attached and this is how governments can nudge the private sector the way it wants to go. EVs and clean energy are popular topics for planning bodies. It makes everybody look good. When something new gets planned, questions need to be answered about this (and a lot of other topics) and having solutions in your plan generally helps getting those plans approved and probably also unlocks some nice subsidies. So, a real estate developer planning some new housing, roadwork, industrial estate, or whatever is going to have a big incentive to have some charging infrastructure built into the plans from day one. For the same reasons the Netherlands is one of the safest places to ride a bike because any roadworks in the last 50 years had some explicit planning for improving bike safety. There's not a single road that gets built without that being a topic of attention and scrutiny.

buboard 7y ago

That sounds a bit like they are solving rich people's problems

hnarn 7y ago
Solving EV problems is a hard equal to solving rich people problems as long as EV:s aren't affordable, but hopefully they will be in a near future, and hopefully our consumer patterns in general will also change by that point to ease the transition into an economy less dependent on fossil fuel.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
avocado4 7y ago
Climate change is primarily hitting the poorest of the world.
- rumanator 7y ago
  The Netherlands is famous for being below sea level. I'm sure they have a dog in the race regarding rising sea levels.
  - jacquesm 7y ago
    NL is like a machine in the sense that keeping the water out requires constant work and energy. Water is pumped out at a stupendous rate, if not for that the country would revert to being mostly a large lake in a decade or two.
rumanator 7y ago
Reducing their oil dependency is something that doesn't benefit only "the rich", or any other political strawan. In addition, perhaps it's time to shed that miopic view on life that leads you to wrongly interpret anything that you believe benefits someone else as an attack on your personal interests.

systemtest 7y ago

I'm skeptical. There is a charging spot in front of my door. I can't use it because I don't have a parking permit. I don't have a parking permit because I have a parking spot of my own. The parking spot is 50 meters from my home and installing a charging spot would be close to €10.000 because they would have to repave the asphalt road that it crosses. I gave up.