Electric driving cheaper thanks to help from an unexpected source

With a charge card from the boss, lease drivers connect their Tesla Model 3 or Volkswagen ID.3 with a smile to the fast charger along the highway. For the private EV driver, that's a different story. Because at charging stations on the A1 or A28 you pay much more than for a charging session at home or at the public charging station in your residential area.

Especially good news for private EV driver

And that while your affordable electric car probably does not have such a mega battery pack. That is precisely why you are almost forced to recharge your car on the way when you have to go to aunt Gerda in Groningen, or to cousin Sjeng in Sittard.

Little competition

The current high charging prices along the highway is partly due to a lack of competition. The charging station providers of Fastned and MisterGreen Fast Charging Network would of course like to keep it that way. They therefore filed a case because of a number of charging station permits issued to Shell and BP filling stations.

'Charging stations at gas stations not unfair'

But the Council of State does not agree with the argument of the charging station farmers that this is unfair. The highest administrative court has ruled that suppliers of petrol and diesel may also install electric charging stations on their premises. There's a catch, though...

“We wonder whether the condition set by the judge is tenable in the future. ”

The main activity of the filling stations must remain the provision of fossil fuels. For example, it is not allowed to combine only six tank columns with four charging stations. That is bad news for Shell gas station Peulwijk-Oost on the A4. We do wonder whether this condition is tenable if we drive massively electrically in the future. Then the demand for petrol and diesel will decrease, while the need for charging stations will increase.

Less stress, lower costs

In any case, this statement is good news for EV drivers. Maybe not even in the first place because of falling charging costs. After all, there are also many more charging stations. This reduces the range stress. Moreover, while charging your electric car, you can eat a ball sandwich or drink a cup of coffee in the kiosk of the pump/charging station. For the time being, this is not possible with Fastned and its associates…