Michiel Langezaal wants 1,000 Fastned stations in Europe

Following the opening of Ladepark Kreuz Hilden, one of the largest charging hubs for Tesla and Fastned in Europe, we spoke with Michiel Langezaal. The CEO and co-founder of Fastned laid out plans and explained current limitations.

The development had been strategic for Fastned and Tesla. Located near the intersection of the A3 and A46 motorways, the Hilden charging hub draws from the populous region around Düsseldorf and many commuters between the Rhineland and Ruhr area. The Autobahn route also connects the Venlo and Eindhoven region with the Rhineland. “This is why we have one of the largest supercharger parks in Germany with currently 20 charging points,” said a Tesla spokesperson. In the final expansion stage, Tesla is planning to install 40 Supercharger stalls.

Fastned on the other hand so far has only four charging stations in operation and our reporter from the German language service electrive.net asked CEO Langezaal why. Or rather, why it was not the other way around, with more chargers that can charge all cars rather than the proprietary Tesla chargers.

The Dutch fast-charging company set up four Alpitronic Hyperchargers with two CCS charging points with 300 kW each and a CHAdeMO connection. Since two of the connections per column can be used simultaneously, Fastned currently offers eight charging points.

That is to start with, emphasised Fastned CEO Langezaal. There are more stalls for additional charging stations, and already stationary battery power installed on-site. The solar panelled roof helps generate electricity on-site, and the partners will add two wind turbines in future.

In the new interview, Langezaal also pointed out that “the hub is really scalable to charge hundreds of cars per day”. Not only with more stations. The CEO also mentioned a possible increase in charging power, so to process more electric vehicles quicker.

The charging process is Fastned’s priority, of course with convenience coming in second. Ladepark Kreuz Hilden offers some extras such as fresh pizza to bridge the wait times with bakery Roland Schüren as an essential partner.

When asked about Fastned’s future, Langezaal sees expansion ahead. The target is to install 1,000 charging stations in Europe. The CEO would not name a concrete time-line part from the goal being “long-term”.

To date, the Dutch company operates over 100 charging stations in the Netherlands and is expanding in Germany and the UK with Switzerland being added to the map this year.

Interview: Sebastian Schaal of electrive.net, on-site.