An Interview With Fastned CEO Michiel Langezaal; Why The Mass Adoption Of EVs Is Inevitable
Though the Netherland’s EV sales are picking up, Fastned’s co- founder & CEO Michiel Langezaal does think they will reach the national goal of 200,000 electric cars on the road by 2020. According to Michiel this number includes not only fully electric cars, but also the Hybrids.There are still parts of the country that are beyond the reach of EVs with a 100 kilometers per charge range. Around 85% of the population do not have their own parking spaces. Yet Fastned’s co- founder & CEO Michiel Langezaal says the EV tipping point will arrive quickly.
EVs Replace Gas Cars
He gave four reasons for expecting to see EVs replace gas cars
- Batteries get better every year. They charge faster, hold more energy, last longer and are cheaper.
- Charging will eventually be as filling up at a gas station
- Once the infrastructure is there, the switch to electric will be much easier
- Electric cars are “computers on wheels,” developed by software engineers. A gasoline car has one function, going forward. The apt comparison is an old dial phone to an iphone.
The Dutch may not meet their target for 200,000 fully electric cars in 2020, but Langezaal expects the to surge past the goal of 1 million EVs and hybrids by 2025.
He explained:
“One million is only 15% of the total cars in the Netherlands. History shows us that once you hit 5% or 6%, if the product is better, then the breakthrough comes much quicker. So I think that 2020 figure will be hard to achieve. We will work very hard, 200,000 is quite a lot, but beyond 2020 we will not go to one million cars on the roads we will go to 8 million.”
Read more: The Eco Report