Electric cars growing more popular; Light scooters unpopular due to helmet law

The number of electric cars in the Netherlands is increasing rapidly. At the same time, Dutch consumers are strongly avoiding purchases of light mopeds and scooters with a 25 kilometer per hour speed restriction due to newer mandatory helmet law. Scooter riders were also the fastest willing to make the switch to electric driving.

More than a quarter of the new cars purchased by private individuals last year were fully electric. A year earlier that was still 11 percent, said automotive trade association RAI.

This is partly because the range of electric mid-sized cars has grown, the association reported. Furthermore, government subsidies and private lease offers help motorists to switch to the all-electric vehicles.

There are now more than 340,000 fully electric cars on the road in the Netherlands. By comparison, almost four out of five cars sold last year in Norway were already fully electric, it was announced at the beginning of this month.

On the Dutch market, popularity increased the fastest among private individuals, to a share of 26 percent of new cars bought last year. In total sales, which also include business and rental cars, 23 percent of new cars were fully electric.

Hybrid driving grew slightly further to 36 percent, while cars with petrol engines showed another contraction. Last year, just under 39 percent of new cars use petrol, compared to 46 percent a year earlier.

Light scooter purchases have fallen along with the introduction of mandatory helmet rules that came into effect at the beginning of this year. Already last year, the number of new light scooters fell by 41 percent, RAI said.

More powerful scooters, which are allowed a maximum of 45 kilometers per hour, became more popular. A mandatory helmet law for these vehicles was already in place. Sales of new units increased by more than a third. That was not enough to prevent a 16 percent decline in the total number of new scooters sold. There was also a 20 percent fall in 2021, but during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic there had been a sharp increase of 62 percent.

Almost half of the new scooters sold last year ran on electricity instead of petrol. That is more than double compared to two years ago. Of the number of new scooters sold to businesses, 89 percent were electric.