Europe’s first fast-charging point for electric vehicles open for business

Leeuwarden - The first fast-charging point in Europe for electric cars opened today. Maurits of Orange, chairman of the Formula E-team, unveiled the recharging point in Leeuwarden that makes it possible to recharge an electric car in 30 minutes. The fast-charging point, which recharges vehicles with Green Energy, is part of a project which Essent has started with the Municipality of Leeuwarden, the Province of Friesland, Epyon and Tamoil. The parties concerned are today taking an important step towards speeding up the use of electric transport.

Isabelle Diks (alderwoman of the municipality of Leeuwarden, left) and prince Maurits of Orange).

‘The fast-charging point in Leeuwarden is a stimulus for electric transport and will contribute to increasing the range of electric vehicles’, says Maurits of Orange, chairman of the Formula E-team. ‘I am delighted that the Netherlands has put itself on the map and has committed itself to new applications with which vehicles can be rapidly recharged.’

Recharging quickly

‘We are very pleased with this fast-charging point, which is intended to meet the need for recharging quickly on the road’, says Kjell Biezen, Electric Transportation manager at Essent, which operates the fast-charging point at the Zwettestraat in Leeuwarden. ‘At this time RWE - our parent company - is making agreements at European level with regard to standardising recharging points. This will include the development of fast-charging points, like the one being started up today’.

Network

To be able to drive electrically you have to be able to recharge your car or boat!’, says Hans Konst, member of the Provincial Executive of Friesland. ‘The provincial government is working on a network offering coverage with electric recharging and filling points with sustainable fuels. This fast-charging point brings this grid a step closer and our ambition is to see 40,000 vehicles and boats running on sustainable fuel in Friesland’.

Keep going

Alderwoman Isabelle Diks of the municipality of Leeuwarden: ‘The municipality is taking the lead in driving projects forward basing itself on the motto: keep going, keep going! There are plenty of positive plans, but the municipality wants to turn them into reality.’

Sustainability

‘The people who are passionately in favour of sustainability and who have therefore made this fantastic project succeed deserve every credit’, says Hans Streng, General Director of Epyon BV, the Dutch hightech company from Rijswijk which supplies advanced rapid charges and infrastructure all over Europe. ‘Epyon is active all over Europe in working on similar projects to create electric highways. We are on the verge of a huge change in the way we think about filling up our car and that is good news’.

Energy transition

Supply Manager Cees van de Peppel at oil company Tamoil: ‘‘We are participating in this pilot project in the context of the energy transition from fossil fuels to alternative fuels. Electric vehicles are one of the solutions for restricting greenhouse gas emissions while still making it possible to fulfil the need for mobility. Our refilling station at Zwettestraat 12 even offers several solutions. E-85 biofuel is also being offered alongside the fast-charging point.’

Fast-charging point

The fast-charging point in Leeuwarden will in the first instance be used by electric passenger buses by the Kijlstra taxi company. This company, which is Essent's first fast recharge client, started to operate these minibuses earlier this year. The NHL Hogeschool will collect and analyse users' experiences (drivers and passengers).

More information

Published: 21 May 2010