Fastned's solar powered charging station network faces obstruction - National Green Transportation
1. Fastned's solar powered charging station network faces
obstruction - National Green Transportation
The newly announced fast charging network in the Netherlands is facing a lawsuit from incumbent
service station owners afraid of the competition. News of the lawsuit emerged on Thursday, and was
filed by 26 service station owners who are seeking to block launch of the network.
The network is being built by Fastned and ABB, and will comprise over 200 fast charging stations.
These fast charging stations will give an 80% recharge in about 30 minutes. The stations will also
have carports with solar panels, providing some of the electricity consumed in recharging the cars.
Sounds like an exciting plan, right? Not everyone agrees.
The service station owners made two points, according to a report on NOS.NL. First, is the question
of whether electricity is or is not a fuel. Presumably there's an agreement where the service stations
have an exclusive role of providing fuel.
Second, the service station owners are afraid the charging station operator will open some kind of
shop.
The core of both these points is that Fastned, the charging station network operator, can be seen as
being in competition with the service station operators.
Source: http://www.longtailpipe.com/2013/07/fast-charging-in-netherlands-faces.html
