Speech Mansveld at reception following visit to Tesla Motors, San Francisco

Toespraak | 08-11-2013

I would like to thank the wonderful people at Tesla Motors for their hospitality. I am so impressed by the professionalism and know-how I’ve seen today.   My visit underscores the close relationship between Tesla Motors and the Netherlands. The Dutch government is happy and proud that Tesla Motors has made major investments in the Netherlands in:

• an assembly line in Tilburg;
• the European headquarters in Amsterdam [to be opened in 2014];
• and seven super stores in our largest cities.

We are delighted that Tesla has selected our country as its European base.

The Netherlands has an excellent business climate for electric vehicles. And, more generally, the US and the Netherlands have an intensive trading relationship.

The Netherlands is the third largest investor in the US. Silicon Valley is a key region where the companies of the future are being built as we speak, and where new ideas for making the world a better place are born every day.

Interestingly, one of every three start-ups backed by venture capital in Silicon Valley is the brainchild of someone from outside the US.

The Netherlands is a country where participating in the community, sharing creative ideas and helping each other grow has always been important.

It’s because of these values that the Dutch consulate in San Francisco set up Holland in the Valley. Holland in the Valley is a community of Dutch entrepreneurs, businesses and professionals in Silicon Valley as well as local venture capitalists, angel investors, potential partner companies and other local players. Its objective is to help Dutch companies in the fields of IT, sustainability and life sciences achieve success on the West Coast, and in Silicon Valley in particular. 

The Netherlands has been a partner for Tesla Motors right from the start:

• the first Tesla Roadster in Europe hit the streets in the Netherlands;
• and the Dutch company Athlon Car Lease purchased the first series of 150 Model S vehicles.

Tesla vehicles made a big impression on Dutch pioneers in the electric vehicle sector. When Professor Maarten Steinbuch, our automotive technology guru, took the first Tesla for a spin he was lost for words. It was that good! And I can assure you: I had the same experience after my test drive in a Tesla just now.

The Netherlands is a nation that is knowledge- and innovation-driven. It is with good reason that Tesla already has Dutch engineers on staff. And we understand Tesla’s unique marketing strategy. I hope that these first steps mark the beginning of an ever closer relationship.

I also hope that Tesla Superchargers will soon be lining Dutch roads. And that Tesla, which is a member of the California coalition, will join Coast2Coast EV Connection soon – that’s a US-Dutch public private partnership in e-mobility.
And that our universities and companies like Tesla will work together closely.

So that we can play a part in the exciting development of a new mid-sized car.

The Netherlands is going electric.

Here are the facts: at the end of September there were more than 13.000 electric cars on Dutch roads. About 2,500 of them are fully electric. By the end of the year, we expect there to be 20,000 electric vehicles on our roads.

Also at the end of September, there were about 5,000 public or semi-public charging stations, about 160 fast-charging stations and 10,000 private charging stations.

The Netherlands is a densely populated, compact country with a population of 17 million. We have three large metropolitan regions, each with more than two million inhabitants. About seven million people live within 50 km of Amsterdam.

So our geography and our population, combined with my government’s active incentive policy, make the Netherlands an e-mobility paradise.

We have the technical, commercial and administrative intelligence to grow this market.

And a population of environmentally aware consumers who practice what they preach by cycling every day. The Netherlands has more bicycles than residents!

California is at the forefront of advanced technologies; electric mobility is no exception. We know the classic stereotype: Californians love the environment and their cars!

So it is not surprising that California is making tremendous efforts to speed up the adoption of electric vehicles. Already, California has more electric vehicles per capita than any other state in the nation. It accounts for one third of all electric vehicles sold in the US.

Governor Brown recently signed a series of six bills to promote electric vehicle use. It’s all part of California’s ongoing campaign to get 1.5 million Zero Emission Vehicles on the road by 2025.

And as if that isn’t enough, Silicon Valley is also set to become the cradle of autonomous vehicles. Tesla Motors recently joined the group of innovative companies developing this technology. Autonomous vehicles will make mobility greener and safer. This combination of traffic safety and technological innovation is an area of intense development in the Netherlands, too, for instance at the automotive campus in the city of Eindhoven. The Eindhoven region is our brainport and, according to Forbes Magazine, the most innovative agglomeration in the world.

I’d like to close by thanking you again for your hospitality. I hope to see some of you at the e-mobility meeting tomorrow, where knowledge sharing and cooperation will again be high on the agenda.