Local authorities to blame for slow roll-out of electric vehicles

If you hadn’t guessed it by the name, the Tuk Tuk Factory develops, produces and sells tuk tuks: battery-powered electric tuk tuks. They are used by taxi companies for transporting passengers in a cheap, eco-friendly manner.

When MindsinMotion.net read about taxi company Prestige pulling the plug on its Utrecht tuk tuk service, we called director of the Tuk Tuk Factory Roland Vos to get the inside story. After all, his company supplies the lithium ion battery powered vehicles to Prestige.

Hibernation
In early November it was reported that Prestige’s Tuk Tuk Taxi Service had stopped running in Utrecht – with spokesperson Jaap Lageman blaming the lack of charging points in the city. Meanwhile, a representative of the municipality said charging points are installed based upon demand. Sounds like the old chicken and egg story again.

“It’s a classic story in the Netherlands and a story that will keep repeating,” says Roland.

Roland says Prestige hasn’t completely withdrawn the service; it’s just hibernating because tuk tuks aren’t suited to winter. However, they’re available to rent for special occasions and will be back on the road come spring.

Prestige is currently in discussion with the local authority to get more charging stations ready for the spring. But it appears the company is frustrated with the lack of urgency, which is delaying its plans to have forty tuk tuk vehicles on the roads of Utrecht in the next few years.

Without more charging points, Prestige won’t be knocking on Roland’s door asking for more vehicles.

Able and willing
Roland says there’s willingness and effort within local authorities to invest in infrastructure, but everything takes such a long time.

“Firstly, committees need to decide what type of infrastructure to create. Unfortunately there’s no national network that organises these decisions. These discussions are taking place separately all over the country,” he says.

Tuk Tuk Factory has grown since we last spoke to Roland. It now covers Amsterdam, Den Haag, Delft, Hoorn, Nijmegen, Utrecht, Rotterdam, s’Hertogenbosch, Tilburg, Alkmaar and Zandvoort, so Roland understands the national situation. He says in Amsterdam, things have gone a little smoother than in Utrecht.

“What Amsterdam’s done well is to appoint people within the local authority just for electric transport systems. In other areas you don’t know who to contact or the responsibility is placed on top of someone else’s workload. It’s simply not efficient. The key for all local authorities is to have a structured system,” Roland says.

Do it yourself
What can manufacturers do to improve the roll-out of electric vehicles? Lots, says Roland. In particular they can help reduce the reliance on local authority-provided infrastructure, by using faster charging systems, solar power, or simply modifying the batteries to reduce re-charging, for example.

“We’ve designed the tuk tuk to have a huge battery beneath the passenger seat. The larger the battery, the less the need to constantly re-charge and the less reliant it is on having charging points all over the city,” says Roland.

Appetite
The delays in the Netherlands haven’t diminished Roland’s appetite for European domination and the company is now aiming to go international.

“The tuk tuk is a sunny, fun recreational vehicle, so is perfect for southern Europe,” he says.

The company has recently gone into partnership with Carrus BV, which sells golf carts and other electric vehicles throughout Europe.

“This will help us set up a Europe-wide sales and distribution network,” says Roland. So watch out for an electric tuk tuk near you. (Depending on the efficiency of your local authority, that is.)