Amsterdam is the easiest big city in Europe to charge in and one of the hardest to park in. Every street inside the A10 has a kerbside pole within a few hundred metres — 10,000 public charge points on 5,000 poles — but the historic centre charges up to €8.05 an hour to park, around the clock, and most of it runs at 30 km/h among trams and bikes. So do what the locals do: charge at the edge, at a P+R on the ring for €6 a day (after 10:00 on weekdays) with a tram ride in, or in a garage with charging bays, and walk or ride in. The same app and free card you use at home work at every one of them, and right across the Netherlands and over the border.
See the live price before you plug in. One app, one free card — across Amsterdam and all of Europe.
Amsterdam's kerbside tariff was the lowest of the four big Dutch cities in a 2024 Keuze.nl comparison — but that is the operator's own price. One 33 kWh session on a pole just outside the city cost between €15 and €18 depending on which of the country's forty-odd charge cards started it, and some cards add a start fee or a monthly fee on top. The bigger number is parking: up to €8.05 an hour in the centre — paid 24 hours a day inside the Singelgracht — for every hour you are plugged in. easyCharging shows the live price at each point up front, so you choose on cost, not guesswork.
Open the app to see live availability and price across Amsterdam’s kerbside poles, P+R bays and garages on one map.
A few local things worth knowing before you charge in the city — where charging is cheap and parking is not, what a kerbside bay costs you, and why the car is happiest left on the ring.
The P+R car parks on the A10 ring cost €6 for 24 hours if you arrive after 10:00 on a weekday or at any time at the weekend (€13 before 10:00 on a weekday) and travel in and back by GVB tram, metro or bus. The discount needs an OV-chipkaart or a GVB paper ticket: a contactless bank card or phone does not qualify, so buy a ticket. P+R Zeeburg III has 16 charging points and P+R Olympisch Stadion has charging bays in its garage. The Q-Park garages at Museumplein, Nieuwendijk and Oostenburg have 24, 31 and 38 charging bays and take every Dutch and foreign charge card, so your free RFID card starts the charge where there is no signal. All of them show live in the app.
A bay signed with the P sign and “opladen elektrische voertuigen” is for electric cars while they are connected — park there unplugged and you risk a fine. Paid parking applies for the whole time you are plugged in: €5.37 to €8.05 an hour in the Centrum district — every hour of every day inside the Singelgracht, shorter hours elsewhere, so check the zone sign — and less the further out you go. Kerbside poles have Type 2 sockets of up to 11 kW, so bring your own cable, and in the residential streets they fill up by the evening — check live availability before you set off rather than circling.
Since December 2023, 80 per cent of Amsterdam’s streets are signed at 30 km/h; trams have priority and cyclists are everywhere — give way at the white “shark’s teeth” markings and check your right before every turn. The milieuzone keeps older diesels out and does not apply to an electric car, whatever its plate. For a quick top-up before the motorway, Fastned's Tafelbergweg hub in Amsterdam Zuidoost charges at up to 400 kW, and the old petrol station at Stadionplein is being rebuilt as TotalEnergies' E-lympic fast-charging hub, due to open in January 2027. See more on the Netherlands guide.
Download the easyCharging app on Android or iOS and create your account. Add a payment method once and you’re ready to charge across Amsterdam and beyond — no Dutch charge card, no second account.
Before you reach the A10, pick where the car will sleep: filter the map for the P+R and garage bays on the ring, or for a kerbside pole outside your hotel, and check it is free and what it costs right now — the price shown is the price for your account, not a different card’s.
At a kerbside pole, plug in with your own Type 2 cable and start the session in the app; in an underground garage, where the signal often drops, tap your free RFID card on the reader instead. Pay the parking at the meter or in the parking app for as long as you are plugged in.
Stop charging in the app, unplug and continue your journey. You’ll get a charging summary, and payment is handled automatically — no subscription, no monthly invoices.
Leave the ring and the same app and free card keep working — across the Netherlands and over the border. One app, one free card and a live price the whole way.
About an hour and a quarter down the A4 past The Hague and Delft to the Stena terminal at Hook of Holland for the Harwich crossing. Fast chargers at the A4 service areas and the hubs around Delft show live in the app, so the last top-up before the ship is planned rather than hoped for.
South-east on the A2 to Utrecht in half an hour, then the A12 past Arnhem to the German border at Emmerich and on to Cologne in under three hours. The same app and free card that you use in Amsterdam keep working on German chargers too, with a live price shown before you plug in at each stop along the way.
South on the A4 to Rotterdam in an hour, then the A16 past Breda to the Belgian border and Antwerp, with Brussels an hour beyond. There’s no need for a second charging app or card: one app and one free card cover the drive on both sides of the border.
6 logins · 6 cards · 6 separate bills
One app and a free RFID card replace the glovebox full of cards — kerb, P+R and garage in Amsterdam, then the Netherlands and Europe, on one bill.
1 app · 1 free card · 1 bill
Built for a city where the charging is easy, the parking is not, and the car is best left on the ring.
Kerbside poles, P+R bays and garage chargers from the city’s two contracted operators and a dozen other networks, on one map with one account — no app-hopping to find out which is free.
When one session can cost €15 on one card and €18 on another, the price for your account is the one you see before you plug in — no start-fee surprises, no guessing.
Underground parking levels often have no mobile signal. A free RFID card starts the charge at the garage bays that take every card, without the app.
Pay only for the sessions you use. No monthly fee, no commitment — ideal for a city break where the car charges twice and walks the rest.
Answers to the most common questions about charging an electric car in Amsterdam — prices, parking at the bay, P+R and garages, rapid chargers and using the same app abroad.
Less than you might expect for the energy and more than you might expect for the parking. Amsterdam’s kerbside tariff was the lowest of the four big Dutch cities in a 2024 Keuze.nl comparison, but one 33 kWh session on a pole just outside the city cost between €15 and €18 depending on the card, and street parking runs up to €8.05 an hour in the centre for the whole time you are plugged in. easyCharging shows the live price for each charger before you plug in, so you choose on cost rather than guesswork.
On the ring rather than in the centre. The P+R car parks on the A10 cost €6 for 24 hours if you arrive after 10:00 on a weekday or any time at the weekend and travel on by GVB with an OV-chipkaart or a GVB paper ticket — a contactless bank card doesn’t count — and several have charging bays: P+R Zeeburg III has 16. A kerbside pole in the outer districts costs a fraction of the centre’s parking too. The app shows the live price and availability of all of them, so you can compare before you drive in.
No. Amsterdam’s kerbside poles are run mostly by two city-contracted operators and the garages and hubs by others, but one easyCharging app and a free RFID card work across all of them — there’s no need for a Netherlands-specific charging app or a separate card for each operator.
Yes. Most of the city’s 10,000 public charge points are kerbside poles in residential streets, which suits an overnight stay — but paid parking applies at the bay for every hour you are plugged in, and inside the Singelgracht it never switches off. Poles in the central districts fill up by the evening, so check live availability in the app before you set off, or use a P+R or garage bay instead.
Amsterdam has a milieuzone, but it restricts older diesel cars only. A fully electric car may drive into every part of the city with nothing to register, whatever its plate. The zero-emission zone that started in 2025 applies to vans and lorries, not passenger cars.
At the hubs on and around the A10 ring — Fastned’s Tafelbergweg site in Amsterdam Zuidoost charges at up to 400 kW — near Schiphol, at the retail parks on the edge of the city, and at the service areas on the A2, A4 and A1 as you leave. The old petrol station at Stadionplein is being rebuilt as TotalEnergies’ E-lympic fast-charging hub, due to open in January 2027. You can find them live in the app, with availability and the current price shown before you go.
You pay through the easyCharging app with the payment method on your account. Payment is handled automatically after each session and you receive a charging summary — no subscription and no monthly invoices. Street parking and P+R are paid separately to the city or the garage.
Yes. The same app and free card work across the Netherlands and over the border into the rest of Europe, so you can drive from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, down the A16 into Belgium or east to Cologne and keep charging with one app — no second account.
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