From installer to full-service CPO: How Van Leeuwen Oplaad operates 4,000 EV charge points with a compact team

Van Leeuwen Oplaad is a Dutch charge point operator (CPO) that manages more than 4,000 EV charge points and 20,000 charge cards via the Last Mile Solutions platform. Founded in 2010, the company has evolved from an EV charger installer into a full-service provider covering installation, remote management, billing, reimbursement, and on-site maintenance. 

“Who would want to drive a car with a battery?” 

It was around 2010, and the first Tesla’s were rolling off the line. In the Netherlands, as elsewhere, most people met them with a shrug. “Who would want to drive a car with  battery?”  was a question Tim van Leeuwen’s father heard a lot. He thought the question missed the point entirely. So he started a company. 

That company is Van Leeuwen Oplaad. As of 2026, it manages close to 4,000 smart charge points for businesses and individuals across the Netherlands, all running on the Last Mile Solutions platform.  

Getting there is a story of making the right choices at a moment when the wrong ones were everywhere. 

How it started: Selling EV chargers into a sceptical market 

The plug-in hybrid boom changed things. The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV arrived with 0% tax benefit attached, and suddenly a lot of Dutch drivers found themselves wanting a home or workplace charger. Van Leeuwen Oplaad was there to provide it. 

“We really sold a lot of chargers for those cars,” Tim van Leeuwen, now the Director of Van Leeuwen Oplaad, recalls.  

Through a dedicated website, the company moved units fast. Most of those early chargers were straightforward: plug them into a group, they’d show you how many kilowatts you’d used, and you’d take care of the rest yourself. No back-office or remote management. But also no recurring relationship with the customer after installation. 

For a while, that model worked.  

Tim, who had trained as an accountant before, started helping his father with the administration around 2014. By 2019, he had quit his day job entirely. “I think we should just connect as many chargers as possible to us now,” was how he saw it then. He still sees it that way. 

©Photo: Van Leeuwen Oplaad 

Why the wrong EV charging platform nearly cost them their customers 

As the market matured, Van Leeuwen Oplaad started looking at back-office platforms. They tried a few. Unfortunately, they encountered several uncomfortable situations before landing the right partner. 

“With one party we didn’t get a return. With the other party we did, but was that return really worth it?” Tim recalls. “You make a plan and a year later it changes. Or half a year later it changes again. It was just no stable partner.” 

— Tim van Leeuwen, Director Van Leeuwen Oplaad  

Another platform they had worked with was acquired by a larger energy company. Privacy policy changes followed, and without warning, Van Leeuwen Oplaad lost access to their own customers’ charging stations through the portal overnight. 

“We lost our customers,” Tim explains. “Because those customers receive a bill every month with [the platform’s new owner’s name] on it. Then they just call that brand when something goes wrong.” 

The white-label problem, as it turned out, was more than a branding inconvenience. When your customers don’t know your name is on their charger, they don’t come back to you when something goes wrong. They go to whoever is on the invoice. 

Choosing Last Mile Solutions: stability, pricing, and a name on the bill 

Van Leeuwen Oplaad started working with Last Mile Solutions around 2015, initially with roughly 100 managed charge points. The early appeal was clear: the platform was stable, the pricing was consistent, and the invoices customers received every month had Van Leeuwen Oplaad’s name on them, not anyone else’s. 

“We have always had pretty good prices,” Tim says. “It’s not that we have existing agreements that changed every year.” 

That last point matters more than it might seem. In a market where platforms were being bought, rebranded, and restructured with alarming frequency, the ability to make a business plan and trust that it would still hold twelve months later was rare. For a small team trying to build something durable, it was decisive. 

But the bigger shift came when recurring revenue started to show. 

“I noticed that we suddenly got extra income every month. Even at the beginning, when it wasn’t that much. But you could see that you had a kind of recurring turnover, a buildup of customers. You could really see a future in it. And then I also quit my previous job.” 

— Tim van Leeuwen, Director Van Leeuwen Oplaad 

From charger installer to full-service charge point operator 

Today, Van Leeuwen Oplaad is a full-service charging partner, not just a hardware reseller. The company sources charging stations and supplies them to both installers and end customers, while managing everything that happens after the charger goes in the wall. 

“We can deliver the charger, we can install it, we manage it, and we can also settle the reimbursement. We offer complete maintenance on site. We distinguish ourselves from other parties by being able to offer the entire package, instead of just sending the charger to them.” 

— Tim van Leeuwen, Director Van Leeuwen Oplaad 

That distinction has become increasingly important as hardware margins have tightened. “There are many charging stations that are just really cheaper,” Tim acknowledges. “The margin is smaller. If we were only going to deliver chargers – or use a platform where we don’t actually get any income from the service – I don’t think we would be doing what we’re doing now.” 

The Last Mile Solutions back-office sits at the centre of that new model. Remote diagnostics, customer management, usage reporting, reimbursement settlement – and now, ERE certificates for employees charging at home: 

“Through your back-office, we can access everything remotely. We can offer more than just the installation service. And that choice has impacted us – in a good way.” 

— Tim van Leeuwen, Director Van Leeuwen Oplaad 

4,000 managed charge points, a small team, and one EV charging management system 

Van Leeuwen Oplaad went from around 100 managed charge points in 2017/2018 to approximately 4,000 today. It has delivered more than 10,000 charge points in total until today, though many of those earlier units were the “dumb charger” variety sold during the Outlander era: hardware without connectivity, before customers started expecting more. 

Behind those 4,000 managed points? A small, efficient team and a robust network of installers.  

“Look at how many chargers other parties deliver with bigger teams – I think we’re doing very well. And we’d like to keep it that way”, Tim says.  

It is, by any measure, a lean operation. One factor behind their success is short lines. A small team makes fast decisions. When a business calls because 10 employees can’t charge in the parking garage, Van Leeuwen Oplaad doesn’t route the ticket through three departments. “We react, we answer the phone right away,” Tim says. “We make sure that someone is at the door today or tomorrow if anything is going on. And because of that, I think a lot of clients stay with us.” 

Part of what makes the lean machine tick is what Van Leeuwen Oplaad doesn’t need to do. There’s no finance team chasing debtors, nor billing department reconciling invoices at the end of every month.  

The Last Mile Solutions platform handles charging session data, customer invoicing, and reimbursement settlement automatically, offloading an entire administrative layer that would otherwise require people, time, and overhead to manage. For a compact team, that’s a great structural advantage. 

“If we hadn’t made that choice – to use a back-office platform – I don’t think we would be doing what we’re doing now, on this scale.”  

— Tim van Leeuwen, Director Van Leeuwen Oplaad 

The relationship goes further than software, too. Last Mile Solutions actively feeds Van Leeuwen Oplaad’s growth through a sub-CPO model by routing leads their way and helping them expand their managed base. Installers and sub-CPOs in their network follow the same loop: buying hardware, connecting to the back-office, building their own recurring revenue under the same charging model.  

It compounds: Van Leeuwen Oplaad grows, their partners grow, and the platform grows with them. 

A decade on the same charger management system – Last Mile Solutions 

Van Leeuwen Oplaad has worked with Last Mile Solutions for nearly a decade – a long time in EV charging, a market that has remade itself multiple times over. Asked to reflect on the partnership, both Tim and co-owner Thomas Merkestein are candid about the full picture. 

The platform is stable. Prices have been consistent. Support picks up tickets with good speed. The white-label invoicing has been there from the start and continues to drive customer retention in ways that are genuinely hard to put a number on. 

But the relationship has also evolved. “Five or six years ago, there were things that couldn’t be done yet. Whereas now, we can really see changes, including things like ERE certificates. That means we can offer the full package with your service as well.” 

The shift matters. In a market where Van Leeuwen Oplaad’s competitive edge is the completeness of its offer, a platform that evolves with that offer is worth considerably more than one that doesn’t. 

Workplace charging, ERE certificates, and the next phase of CPO growth 

The EV market has naturally moved from early skepticism to complexity. 

“Everyone used to ask who would drive an electric car,” Tim says. “Now the question is how do we manage all these charge points properly.” 

Customers now expect insights, settlements, and structured billing through charging infrastructure. ERE certificates add another layer of complexity and demand for back-office systems. 

“I think we should just bind as many chargers as possible to us now,” Tim says. “These are recurring customers – we don’t just install and disappear.” 

From a skeptical market and a father’s early bet to 4,000 managed charge points, 20,000 charge cards, a stellar reputation, and a business model built for what comes next: 

That’s one small but mighty team.

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