Project Background
The Netherlands is one of Europe’s most advanced EV markets, with battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles accounting for over 30% of new car registrations by 2024. In Amsterdam specifically, the combination of municipal parking emission zone policies, employer EV incentives, and a dense network of public charging points has pushed EV ownership in the city to among the highest rates in Europe on a per-capita basis.
CityPark Retail Centres manages four shopping centre properties across the Netherlands — two in the Amsterdam metropolitan area (North Amsterdam and Amstelveen), one in Utrecht, and one in Eindhoven. In their 2023 property strategy review, the management team identified EV charging provision as the single most frequently cited amenity gap in their tenant and shopper surveys. Forty-two percent of surveyed shoppers who drove to their Amsterdam properties were arriving in a BEV or PHEV. Of those, 28% reported that the availability of in-car-park charging influenced their choice of shopping destination.
The business case extended beyond shopper convenience. CityPark’s two largest anchor tenants — a major Dutch supermarket chain and a home furnishings retailer — had both raised EV charging provision in their lease renewal discussions, citing it as a condition for committing to a further five-year term. The combined value of those two tenancies over five years exceeded €2.4 million, making the charging infrastructure investment economics straightforward even before considering the direct revenue from charging fees.
Specification and Supplier Selection
CityPark issued a detailed specification to six potential suppliers in January 2024. The specification was technically demanding by commercial AC charging standards:
- OCPP 1.6 with smart charging profile support and OCPI roaming capability (to allow drivers on major Dutch charging networks to authenticate using their existing subscriptions)
- 22 kW three-phase output (the maximum permitted by the vehicle OBC for most models in the Dutch BEV fleet)
- IP54 minimum for indoor basement car park installation; IP65 for a small number of spaces in a semi-open top-deck area
- Payment capability — contactless bank card, QR code, and RFID card (to support both network roaming customers and ad-hoc pay-as-you-go drivers)
- Tethered Type 2 cables of at least 5 metres (to accommodate both front-wheel-drive and rear-wheel-drive vehicle inlet positions without repositioning)
- Aesthetically neutral enclosure compatible with CityPark’s car park lighting and signage design standards — white RAL 9016 finish specified
After evaluation, CityPark selected Klitv for the Amsterdam North and Amstelveen sites (Phase 1), with the Netherlands-based installation partner handling the site survey, civil works, and OCPP CMS integration with the Jedlix smart charging platform.
OEM Customisation for the Dutch Market
The Dutch market presented specific localisation requirements that were handled through OEM firmware customisation:
- Dutch language interface as the default HMI language, with English as secondary
- OCPI 2.2 roaming configured for interoperability with Allego and Vattenfall charging network credentials — covering approximately 65% of the Dutch BEV driver market
- MID-certified meter integration — fiscally metered charging is required in the Netherlands for public billing compliance; Klitv configured the units to report MID meter readings through OCPP for the Jedlix platform to use as the billing basis
- Dynamic pricing — the Jedlix integration allowed CityPark to implement time-differentiated tariffs: lower rates during off-peak shopping hours (08:00–11:00 and 19:00–close) to incentivise charge spreading, higher rates during peak midday and weekend periods
Installation Process
The twelve-week project timeline reflected the additional time required for:
- Tenant and parking operations consultation — CityPark required a formal consultation process with anchor tenants before any car park infrastructure changes, which consumed three weeks
- Municipal permit — a minor permit was required for the electrical distribution board upgrade at Amsterdam North (the Amstelveen site was covered by existing permits)
- OCPI integration testing — Jedlix and the roaming networks required a four-week integration and testing period before live customer access could be enabled
| Phase | Duration |
|---|---|
| Supplier selection and PO | 3 weeks |
| Hardware production and shipping | 5 weeks |
| Civil works and installation | 2 weeks |
| OCPP/OCPI integration and testing | 4 weeks (parallel with installation) |
| Public launch | Week 12 |
The civil installation — 40 units across two sites — was completed in nine working days. The OCPP configuration required particular attention to the MID meter reporting pathway, which was completed through a joint technical session between Klitv’s firmware team and Jedlix’s integration engineers via video conference.
Results: Three Months Post-Launch
Session Volume and Peak Performance The 40-unit fleet across both Amsterdam sites reached steady-state operation faster than projected. By the end of Month 1, average daily sessions reached 180; by Month 3, peak-day sessions (Friday and Saturday) had reached 342 — an average of 8.6 sessions per charger on peak days, or approximately 85% utilisation on the day’s opening hours.
Dwell Time Impact CityPark’s retail analytics platform tracked customer dwell time through anonymised mobile device signals in the car park and shopping areas. EV-driving customers (identified by their use of a charging session during the visit) showed an average dwell time of 2 hours 14 minutes — 19% longer than the same customer segment pre-installation (when those customers charged elsewhere or did not charge during the visit). This extended dwell directly correlated with an 8% increase in average spend per visit for EV-driving customers, as reported by anchor tenants’ loyalty programme data.
Network Roaming Adoption Of total sessions in Month 3, 58% were initiated using existing RFID credentials from Allego, Vattenfall, and other OCPI-connected networks. This confirmed the importance of roaming interoperability — more than half of customers were arriving with charging accounts already established and expected frictionless access.
Charging Revenue Monthly charging revenue across both sites reached €14,200 in Month 3. At current utilisation growth, CityPark projects a simple payback of 48 months on the net capital expenditure — accelerating to 36 months if Phase 2 (Utrecht and Eindhoven) enables shared CMS and OCPI infrastructure costs to be amortised across all four properties.
Tenant Impact Both anchor tenants confirmed their lease renewals within eight weeks of the launch. While the EV charging provision was not the sole factor, the property director confirmed it was specifically referenced in both renewal discussions.
Client Commentary
“We underestimated how quickly Dutch shoppers would adopt the charging provision as a routine part of their shopping trip. Within six weeks of launch, we had repeat users who were specifically timing their shopping visits around their charging schedule. The OCPI roaming was non-negotiable for this market — if we had required a new account, half of our users would not have engaged. Klitv’s team understood that and made it work within the standard firmware lead time.”
— Head of Property Operations, CityPark Retail Centres
Project Specification Summary
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| Country | Netherlands (Amsterdam metropolitan area) |
| Sites | 2 (Amsterdam North + Amstelveen) |
| Total Units | 40× 22 kW AC Level 2 |
| Connector | Type 2, 5 m tethered |
| Protocol | OCPP 1.6 + OCPI 2.2 (Jedlix platform) |
| Metering | MID-certified fiscal metering |
| IP Rating | IP54 (indoor) / IP65 (semi-open decks) |
| OEM Features | Dutch HMI, OCPI roaming, MID metering, dynamic pricing |
| Installation Timeline | 12 weeks |
| Peak Day Sessions | 342 |
| Shopper Dwell Time Increase | +19% for EV-driving customers |
| Roaming Session Share | 58% |
Performance data provided by the client based on their CMS reporting and retail analytics platform. Client and property names have been anonymised at the client’s request.