Hello, I am Hans de Bruijn,
I am a professor of public administration here at Delft University of Technology.
And I often advise the Dutch government on the introduction of e-mobility.
And I have several questions about e-mobility for you.
One of the major questions the government is faced with is ‘how environmentally friendly
is an electric car?’
And that of course depends upon the questions ‘where does the
electricity come from?’ From coal?
From solar?
From wind.
It is a key question.
Another question, another concern of the government is ‘are
we perhaps investing in an old technology?’.
We do not know yet what the development of the electric car will be.
And maybe within five, ten years,
we have much more advanced cars than we have now.
And that might be a reason for the Dutch government not to invest in the present generation of
cars or not to subsidize it.
By the way, subsidization is also an issue.
Why should the Dutch government subsidize electric cars,
when there are alternatives that are also environmentally friendly?
And what is the innovation potential of the traditional car.
Maybe thanks to the introduction of the electric car there will be strong incentives for the
producers of the traditional cars to improve the environmental performance of their cars.
So there are many questions here.
And those questions make it extremely difficult for the Dutch government to decide about the
question ‘what to do?’ And my simple question to you is ‘get me out of here!’
Give me a clear picture of what the problem is.
And what the solution is.
And what the course of the decision making in this country should be.