Assen wants to realize about three hundred charging stations for electric cars in the next four years. These are charging points in neighborhoods and in parking garages. According to the municipality, this means a comprehensive charging network for passenger cars. The price tag attached to it is 900,000 euros.
This is evident from the municipal vision for public charging stations from 2023 to 2027.
Three tons will be reserved for the realization of public charging points for passenger cars in neighbourhoods. That is good for 175 charging stations. Because average costs per charging station, which has two charging places, are at least a thousand euros.
For charging stations in parking garages, the investment amount is considerably higher. That costs about three thousand euros per place because of all kinds of security measures. This mainly has to do with fire safety.
Assen is therefore allocating 600,000 euros for research and the realization of fifty public charging points in parking garages. This concerns garages in the city centre, because the municipality sees no other options in the public space there.
Assen currently has about 75 charging stations. By the end of this year, there are expected to be 100. According to the municipality, this means that a comprehensive network of public charging stations with a mutual distance of approximately 250 meters is almost ready.
The municipality expects 1,700 electric cars to be driving around Assen by the end of this year. It has been calculated that half of these can park and charge their car on their own premises. The other 850 car owners rely on public charging points.
Assen assumes an average charging time for a full battery of four hours. Five cars per day can then be connected per charging point. And because each charging station usually consists of two charging points, 85 charging stations in the neighborhoods will be enough at the end of this year for all cars that cannot be powered at home.
“And not every car needs to be charged every day. An average car in the Netherlands only drives 32 kilometers a day. We can therefore conclude that the municipality amply meets the expected need,” says Assen in her charging station vision.
Assen does not cooperate with requests from residents, who do not have their own driveway, to be able to pull a power cable from home over the sidewalk or under it to a public parking space.
In 2025, Assen thinks that the number of electric cars will be around 3800. Then at least 190 charging stations are needed. Before 2030, she expects more than 9,000 electric cars in the provincial capital, which requires 465 charging stations.
GroenLinks, VVD and the Labor Party do not think the ambitions in the municipal vision are high enough, as it turned out in the Asser city council. “The demand for charging stations can increase enormously, so we should install public charging stations a bit more and faster,” the parties criticized the charging vision tonight.
According to the PvdA, Assen must be ‘above all a hospitable city’ with sufficient public charging points for electric car owners. “And with more charging stations at municipal real estate, the municipality can also set a good example.”
In two weeks, the city council must finalize the future vision for the public charging stations.