All Ambers have their own charging card. You can find this charging card in the glove compartment and can be used anywhere to charge the car. Each car also has its own charging cable. You can find this cable in the trunk.
Charging the car works as follows:
Take the charging cable from the trunk and connect the car to the charging station with the charging cable. There is a different plug at each end of the charging cable; there is only one that fits in the car and one that fits in the charging station.
Take the charge card from the glove compartment and scan the charging card by holding the card in front of the sensor on the charging station. You will now hear a beep and the charging cable will be locked in the charging station and in the car. When the light of the charging station and the light around the charging port of the car turn blue, the car has been successfully connected and charging has started.
Put the charging card back in the glove compartment and lock the car.
Disconnecting the car works the other way around:
Take the charge card out of the glove compartment and scan the charging card by holding the card in front of the sensor on the charging station. You will now hear a beep and the charging cable will be unlocked.
Remove the charging cable from the car and from the charging station and put it back in the trunk.
Do not forget to put the charging card back in the glove compartment.
In general, there are two different types of charging stations: standard charging stations and fast chargers.
Standard charging stations
With normal charging stations you use the charging cable in the trunk (Mennekes Type 2) and in general these charging stations have a power of 11 or 22 kW. At 11 kW it takes about 3 hours for the car to be charged from 0 - 80%.
Fast chargers
In addition, there are charging stations with a much more power. These are called fast chargers. You will often find them along the highway, but they are also increasingly being installed in cities. Fast chargers have their own charging cable, so you do not need the charging cable from the trunk. You can charge the BMW i3 by using the CCS plug on the fast charger. Connect the cable, scan the charging card and the car will start charging. With a maximum of 50 kW, charging is a lot faster and charging the car from 0 - 80% takes about 30 minutes.
Finding a charging station
The Netherlands is one of the leaders when it comes to charging infrastructure in Europe. The Netherlands has about 1,500 fast charging points and has at least 60,000 (semi) public charging points. So, there is always a charging station near you. We recommend the Shell Recharge app to find charging stations. It is available for both iOS and Android. By using this app, you can always see where charging stations are located near you. In addition, you can also see which power these stations have and whether they are currently occupied. Are you looking for a fast charger? Filter on CCS and navigate directly to the fast charger of your choice.