Total will install 20,000 new public electric vehicle (EV) charging points, after winning Europe’s largest concession contract from Metropolitan Region Amsterdam Electric (MRA-Electric) it says.
The oil and gas company will install and operate the chargers in three provinces in the Netherlands: North-Holland, Flevoland and Utrecht (excluding the municipalities of Amsterdam and Utrecht).
All of the electricity for the chargers will be sourced from renewables located in the Netherlands, and Total says that it is aiming to gradually source part of it from the MRA region itself. This will allow EV drivers to use clean, locally sourced power, and Total will also look into new solar power possibilities in the region to further support this.
It will also develop and implement smart charging technologies, to support the chargepoints as well as balance the grid.
Alexis Vovk, the president for marketing & services and a member of the executive committee at Total said the company was “happy” to be awarded the contract.
“By combining the experience and legacy of our team in the Netherlands – formally PitPoint Clean Fuels – with the expertise of Total in EV charging and in solar power, we were able to present an innovative offer fitting the needs of both the MRA-Electric and the future users.”
The rollout of the chargers in the Netherlands is in line with Total’s ambition to operate 150,000 charging point by Europe by 2025, Vovk added.
The MRA region is one of the largest in the Netherlands, with a population of 3.2 million inhabitants, or 18% of the population. It also has some of the largest demand for EV infrastructure, with around 15% of the current Dutch EV charging demand.
The company already has 4,500 public charging points in the country, following the acquisition of Dutch company PitPoint in 2017. This make Total the main EV charging operator in the MRA-Electric region.
“Thanks to the project approach of Metropolitan Region Amsterdam Electric (MRA-E), governments and private companies, we can work together and stimulate electric transport,” Maarten Linnenkamp, project manager for ‘Electric Mobility’ at the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam, added.
Total is increasingly looking to cement it’s place in the EV space, after it initially bought its way in to the sector with the acquisition of French firm G2mobility in 2018.
In the same year in the UK, Total Gas & Power also launched a new electric vehicle charging offer to the 175,000 business sites it supplies, after agreeing a reseller partnership with ChargePoint.