City of Den Bosch opens charging points for electric cars

Today the provincial campaign ‘Haute Voiture - Schoon door Brabant’ (‘Haute Voiture Clean through Brabant’) arrived in Den Bosch. The city took this opportunity to symbolically inaugurate 11 electric vehicle charging points - a first in the Netherlands.

What is more, Den Bosch will see its first natural gas refilling point start up in October. The electric charging points were installed by network operator Enexis to supply green energy from Essent.

City of Den Bosch opens charging points for electric cars

An impressive ‘car walk’ processed over a red carpet on the Parade with vehicles from the near future, such as cars powered by electricity and natural gas. Alderman Bart Eigeman and Alexandra van Huffelen (Director of New Energy at Essent) talked about existing and new projects, which underline the fact that the capital of Brabant is a leader when it comes to sustainable transport within city boundaries.

Major steps taken

In March of this year, the city of Den Bosch signed a declaration of intent with energy company Essent, network operator Enexis, Greenwheels, Arriva and the provincial government, to deploy electric transport in various ways within the city boundaries. Haute Voiture shows what has already been achieved:

  • No fewer than 11 public charging points, installed by network operator Enexis, were opened for recharging electric cars. Seven of these charging points are on public roads and park-and-rides and four at car parks in the city. With this the city of Den Bosch has scored a national first in the Netherlands.
  • The city of Den Bosch has ordered its first two electric cars (Think) to be delivered this autumn.
  • Essent will receive 35 electric cars by the end of the year, including 30 of the Volkswagen Golf type and 5 of the Think type. In addition, another 5 Toyota Prius plug-in cars will be delivered to the energy company.
  • Essent has 30 employees who use electric scooters for transport and already has an electric pool car in use. This makes Essent a pioneer in the Netherlands.
  • Greenwheels will, with the city's support, deploy two hybrid electric cars in the inner city.
  • This year, network manager Enexis will receive 13 Volkswagen Golf type electric cars.
  • Den Bosch will be the starting point in the Netherlands for the Road to Copenhagen event, in the run-up to the UN climate change summit to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Promising path

‘We started last year with putting electric transport on the map in the Netherlands, in cooperation with the government,’ says Alexandra van Huffelen. ‘Electric transport is the most promising path towards sustainable mobility. We attach a great deal of importance to coalitions with the authorities, businesses and knowledge institutes. The project in Den Bosch is an example of this, and there will be more. I would like to congratulate the alderman on the steps we are presenting today.’

Contributing to a healthy environment

‘Our intention is to contribute to a healthy environment in Den Bosch with clean transport. Using electricity and natural gas fits in with this, but you need the right infrastructure. We are now taking some significant steps with 11 electric public charging points and a natural gas filling point which will open in October,’ says Alderman Eigeman glowing with pride. ‘Today we are demonstrating that we are on the right path, and that these are not just empty words.’

Published: 17 September 2009