Last week the Amsterdam city council released its Clean Air Plan focusing on making the city emission free from mobility. The plan is made up of four phases of implementation. Roughly the plan entails the following steps:

• From next year in 2020, diesel cars that are 15 years or older will be banned from going within the A10 motorway ring surrounding the capital boundaries.
• In 2022 there will be stricter rules for public transport buses and touring-cars to be emission free within key city areas
• As of 2025 the ban will be extended to pleasure crafts on its waters, mopeds and light mopeds in its inner-city and supply logistics vehicles are required to be emission free within the outer ring (within A10 motorway).
• In 2030 all transport types are required to be emission free, including passenger cars and motorcycles, within Amsterdam’s built environment ring.

This plan created a lot of discussion and a bit of upheaval in the Netherlands, and even created attention from abroad. Although the plan received quite a bit of critique, the plan also received support and was applauded by others. Some of the critical responses rightfully addressed the challenges that still need to be tackled before the plan can become a reality. However, the Amsterdam region is also showing itself to be a frontrunner in trying to solve these challenges, for example through participating in innovation projects such as SEEV4-City, the project Cenex Nederland is also active partner in, and many other initiatives.

Following the earlier (inter)national media attention to its Clean Air Plan, yesterday one of the SEEV4-City’s pilots created some new buzz as the ‘Flexpower‘ initiative reached its launching milestone. Flexpower specifically makes use of flexibility in both charging times and speed. The Amsterdam municipality is one of SEEV4-City’s operational pilot partners, and Flexpower is part of its SEEV4-city pilot.

Yesterday celebrated the launch of 456 charging units now being used as Flexpower units, actively applying the flexible charging technology. The moment was symbolically kicked-off by Alderman Sharon Dijksma. This too gained the attention of national media, being showcased at the main evening news and articles in news platforms such as NOS and Parool. It is good to see the (public) discussion and attention being raised based on action. To be continued!