Dutch electricity grid companies have agreed to build a national network of charging stations for electric cars to encourage the purchase of this type of clean vehicles, Dutch media reported on Friday.

Eleven companies which manage the regional electricity grids decided to build at least 10,000 such charging stations by 2012. The whole country will be covered by the scheme with the exception of the region of Rotterdam.

The cost of the project is estimated at some 15 million euros ( 20 million U.S. dollars) and will be paid by the grid companies themselves.

The grid companies want to end "the chicken and the egg" dilemma in which consumers do not buy electric cars because there are no recharging points, and power companies don't want to build recharging points because no one has electric cars.

At the moment, hardly any electric cars are being sold in the Netherlands and it is hoped the new initiative will help stimulate the market.

An important reason is their price. Electric Cars Europe converts Volkwagen Golfs to run on batteries and a revamped vehicle costs about 100,000 euros (132,500 dollars).

Enexis, the energy company which put forward the idea of a recharger network, said that the cars will have to be introduced in a controlled way because the Dutch grid is not yet geared up to a large-scale use of the vehicles.

It takes the amount of power an average home uses in five days to recharge an electric car.