Basel wants 200 additional charging stations

Basel’s city government has announced intentions to add another 200 additional charging stations to be installed in the canton by 2026. To this end, a new law is to put the charging facilities on a legal footing.

According to a statement by the city government, 30 of the 200 charging stations will be unspecified fast chargers. The Industrial Works Basel (IWB) will be commissioned with the construction and operation of the charging stations, for which the city council will have to approve a conditionally repayable interest-free loan of 11.4 million Swiss francs.

Since the beginning of 2018, IWB has been operating 41 publicly accessible charging points in Basel city in a trial operation. According to the Basel city government, in view of the climate targets, support measures are necessary to accelerate the switch to electric vehicles. However, the communication states that this “financially moderate support” must not compete with public transport, pedestrian or cycle traffic and must not lead to an increase in motorised individual traffic.

The canton’s environmental protection law is now even to be adapted for the charging stations. In addition to the “demand-driven expansion” of the charging infrastructure, electromobility is to be promoted with further measures such as subsidies for the expansion of house connections or awareness-raising measures for companies.

bs.ch (in German)