Some 145,000 electric cars on Dutch roads as all-electrics become more affordable

After years of being mainly used by lease drivers, electric cars are finally affordable to private individuals, according to travelers' association ANWB. There are now nearly 145 thousand electric cars in the Netherlands, twice as much as last year, but still only a small proportion of the total 9 million cars. 

The ANWB annually compares the costs of new petrol and electric cars. This year the costs were very close together - 57 cents per kilometer for electric, and 56.4 cents per kilometer for petrol, based on four years of use and traveling 15 thousand kilometers per year.

"An electric car is more expensive to purchase,' Marco van Eenennaam, project manager for electric driving at the ANWB, said to NOS. "But you earn that back through less maintenance costs, less energy costs and lower taxes."

The average range of an electric car is continuously increasing, from 205 kilometers in 2018 to 268 kilometers last year, and 305 kilometers this year. And the offer is increasing in line with consumer demands. In the price range up to 50 thousand euros, consumers can currently choose from 31 different cars, compared to last year's 22 options.

The government wants to ban the sale of cars that run on fossil fuels by 2030. To achieve that, the government needs to continue to provide purchase subsidies for electric driving, the ANWB said. "There was a subsidy this year, which halved the additional costs of electric driving. But that subsidy pot was empty within a week," Van Eenennaam said to the broadcaster. "That pot really needs to be bigger. A lot of people are still scared off by the price."

Electric car manufacturers also need to create more affordable models and a second-hand market needs to be created.