'Fair tenders needed'

Call by Fastned to municipalities: stop tacitly renewing agreements with filling stations

Published on 19-05-2025 at 09:15

Ondanks de energietransitie en de groeiende vraag naar openbaar toegankelijke (snel)laadstations, schalen Nederlandse gemeenten elektrisch rijden onvoldoende op ondanks de vele mogelijkheden die worden geboden. — Zo’n 450 tankstations in Nederland, circa 11% van het totale aantal, staan op gemeentelijke grond.

Despite the energy transition and the growing demand for publicly accessible (fast) charging stations, Dutch municipalities are not sufficiently scaling up electric driving despite the many opportunities offered. Agreements for filling stations on municipal land are not only often tacitly renewed, scarce public land is also largely used to sell polluting fossil fuels. This is according to Fastned after research based on the Open Government Act (WOO) among all 342 Dutch municipalities.

Municipalities in the Netherlands are massively missing opportunities offered to them to scale up electric driving, according to the fast-charging company. Municipalities lease large tracts of land for fossil fuel sales. Publicly tendering the sites currently occupied by petrol stations, as is common along motorways, offers municipalities the chance to use these lands for their social goals, including developing large charging stations and phasing out fossil fuel sales on public land. However, according to Fastned, they are not doing this or not doing it enough. Agreements with filling stations are tacitly renewed, according to the fast-charging company, while public land has to be regularly redistributed and many of the contracts are terminable within a reasonable period or expire within the next 10 years.

Crucial role

By tendering municipal land for refuelling and charging stations, municipalities can play a crucial role in enabling the transition to electric driving. Yet according to Fastned, this municipal land is currently far from being tendered fairly and transparently everywhere, or not tendered at all. According to the company, this raises the question of why scarce public land is still being used to sell polluting fossil fuels. Fastned therefore calls on municipalities for more transparency and a fairer distribution of municipal land to accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility and ensure that residents of municipalities have sufficient quality charging facilities.

Regular redistribution

Many of the filling stations on municipal land were once established by direct agreements between governments and filling station operators, at a time with different tendering rules. Meanwhile, procurement legislation requires that scarce public land is regularly redistributed publicly to promote fair competition and entry opportunities. In the so-called MDW process of the 1990s, along the highways, the old open-ended contracts of petrol stations were already discontinued for this reason. Instead, a transparent system was introduced with licences re-auctioned every 15 years. However, most municipalities have not yet made this step, according to Fastned after research.

Undue advantage

Skewed market relations, unclear agreements, tacit renewals and lack of end dates give existing filling station operators “an improper advantage”, according to Fastned. According to the company, the study shows that almost all municipalities lack a transparent and objective tendering system for filling stations and charging stations, which prevents new and innovative companies from having the opportunity to offer fast charging. In addition, the speed of the transition is placed in the hands of incumbent parties selling fuel, Fastned said.

Change

“Municipalities have the means to help the Netherlands make the switch to electric driving,” said Fastned’s ceo Michiel Langezaal. “From 2035, no new fossil fuel cars may be sold in Europe, which is already going to cause a huge increase in the number of electric vehicles on the road in the next few years. As a municipality, make sure you help your residents switch to electric driving. As a municipality, come up with a clear roadmap on how you want to work towards having enough charging facilities for your residents and thus get ready for the future. Issuing fair tenders to build the best and most user-friendly fast-charging infrastructure on municipal land is a crucial part of this. As a municipality, you hold the ground for change,” Langezaal said.

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This article was automatically translated from the Dutch language original to English (British).

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