18-4. ELECTRIC CARS IN AMSTERDAM

Amsterdam is a lovely city. Summer light sparkled in the canals as we drove into town to meet the electric people from the municipality. 51% of the Amsterdam'ers bike to work, but cars fill up every space and the air-pollution gets worse and worse. That is one reason Amsterdam makes a big effort to promote electric cars. Pieter Swinkels from Amsterdam Elektrisch explained about the program: infra-structure with charging points, deals with producers of electric cars and subsidies to buyers of electric cars, encouraging international EV-companies to settle in Amsterdam and finally a strategic communication to make EVs visible in the city. The rest of the day we spent as guests at the big AutoRAI car-show in Amsterdam. Green Car got inside and charged together with all the new electric cars and Nina and I were interviewed about our journey and experiences with the electric car. As in Detroit extreme electric cars were the hot thing for most brands. The good old petrol-cars swelled the second rows. No longer sold on max power and speed but on minimal co2 emission. The sun went down in the river and rthe ducks made a noise behind the tents on the camp-ground. The world moves forward.

Hjalte