Coulomb ChargePoint Stations Available in Amsterdam

The race for the development of charging infrastructures for the future electric vehicles and plug-ins to roam the streets has entered a new lap this week, as the city of Amsterdam will become the first European location to install Coulomb ChargePoint stations.

In all, 45 stations will be installed, as they will make part of a two-year public demonstration project. By 2012, Amsterdam plans to raise the stakes even higher and provide no less than 200 charging locations across the city, expected to serve the 10,000 EV which are estimated to be in Amsterdam by 2015.

“We are proud to announce our first European deployment of Coulomb’s ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations. Less than two months ago we announced the formation of our EMEA headquarters and now the city of Amsterdam will have the largest network of smart charging stations in Europe for fleet and consumer charging," Richard Lowenthal, Coulomb CEO said.

But how does it work? First of all, EV owners must subscribe to the ChargePoint Network through a website and receive a ChargePoint Smart Card. This card allows the customer to charge the car at any of the given charging stations.

To activate the station, customers must hold the card near the card reader on the station's front panel. After the station's door opens, it's plug-and-play (or should we say plug-and-drive). The locations of the charging points will be available through Google Maps.

"Coulomb is providing an inclusive open architecture so that all electric vehicle owners in Amsterdam can easily make the switch from gasoline to electricity as a fuel,” Richard Lowenthal added.