Wheels Blog: Fast E.V. Charging Ramps Up in the Netherlands

ABB ABB’s proposed DC fast-charging stations for E.V.’s in the Netherlands would accommodate Japanese and American connectors.

Sales of electric cars in Europe have been stuck in the slow lane, but could that change as governments and private companies become more involved in providing public charging there? On Monday, ABB, the Swiss electric engineering and power grid company, announced that it would install a national network of 201 fast-charging stations in the Netherlands.

Cal Lankton, director of electric vehicle infrastructure for ABB in the United States, said in a telephone interview that the solar-aided stations, which can fully charge a car in 30 minutes or less, will be installed by 2015 at service stations on ring roads and other intracity locations throughout the Netherlands. ABB said that when the network is complete, all of the country’s more than 16 million people would live within 31 miles of a fast-charging station.

The venture is a public-private partnership between the Dutch government, which provided the locations, and Fastned, a commercial start-up founded in 2011. Mr. Lankton said that ABB would install its Terra chargers, which could accommodate plugs using the Japanese CHAdeMO protocol or the recently adopted SAE J1772 Combo connectors (with the same large plug for 240-volt AC charging and 480-volt DC fast charging).

“Multistandard chargers are truly future-proof,” Mr. Lankton said. “There has been a hesitation to invest solely in CHAdeMO when it was plain that new standards were coming.”

In February, ABB completed installation of 165 DC fast chargers in Estonia. The Estonian government, which provides subsidies of up to 50 percent for electric car purchases, owns the network, which is managed by local third parties. Mr. Lankton said that Estonia had a very high rate of E.V. penetration in Europe, behind only Norway, which heavily subsidizes the cars.

Estonia’s 165 DC fast chargers surpass the 150 to 160 public units installed in the United States, Mr. Lankton said, raising questions about the American pace of public charging. Although Tesla Motors is rapidly expanding its fast-charge Supercharger network along major highways, similar service is not widely available for other electric cars.

Phil Gott, senior director for long-range planning at IHS Automotive, is skeptical that fast charging is the key to jump-starting E.V. adoption.

“The United States is perhaps following a more common-sense approach,” he said. “Using fast-charging networks to try and make electric vehicles the equivalent of long-distance liquid-fueled vehicles is a concept that will never happen. Fast chargers aren’t fast, often giving you less than 100 miles of travel in 30 minutes compared to 400 miles in five minutes at a gas station. The natural home for electric cars is cities, which are home to 50 percent of the world’s population. E.V.’s should be in markets where you don’t need fast charging.”

Mr. Lankton agrees that even with fast charging, the electric car is not going to replace the conventional vehicle for lengthy trips. For cars with about 100 miles of range, he sees it as a regional aid for getting around on battery power.

“By itself, putting a DC fast charger in the middle of Iowa is not going to enable long-distance travel for electric vehicles,” he said, “but the technology solves the vast majority of use cases for urban and suburban travel.”

Nevertheless, there are signs that fast charging is gaining traction in North America, from Tesla and others. Nissan, for instance, said in late January that it would install at least 500 quick chargers in the United States over the next 18 months and this week committed to installing 100 of them at 21 markets around the country. Brendan Jones, director of electric vehicle marketing and sales strategy at Nissan, said in January, “We envision a quick-charging network that links communities and neighborhoods where people live, work, shop and socialize.”

Navigant Research said in March that shipments of DC fast chargers would reach almost 100,000 worldwide by 2020.

“Fast E.V. charging faces two significant hurdles to widespread adoption: the units are much more expensive than conventional charging systems, and the industry faces a standards conflict between the CHAdeMO system and the more recent combo connector,” Richard Martin, editorial director of Navigant Research, said in an e-mail. “Nevertheless, opportunities exist for fast charging, particularly for providers that have strong relationships with third-party businesses, such as major retailers, that have an incentive to offer their customers fast on-premises charging.”