Third of electric drivers considering going back to fuel cars as tax benefits disappear

A third of electric drivers are considering switching back to a fuel car next year once the benefits are phased out. In 2030, when the tax benefits are completely gone, almost 60 percent say they’d stop driving electric, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) reported based on a joint study with the Electric Drivers Association and the University of Groningen among 3,500 electric drivers.

At the end of this year, the exemption from motor vehicle tax will expire for electric drivers and the discount on the additional benefit will be terminated. An electric car will then become more expensive than a comparable fuel car.

Private individuals will also pay more road tax for their electric cars because it is a lot heavier than the average fuel car due to the built-in batteries. Due to the further reduction of the discount on the additional benefit, it will also become more expensive for business drivers to drive electric.

The government’s ambition is that all new passenger cars sold in 2030 will be emission-free, which will make an emission-free fleet possible by 2050. However, electric drivers seem less and less convinced that the government actually wants to stimulate electric driving. Only 29 percent of electric drivers think that the government really wants the Dutch to drive electric. This is a significant decrease compared to last year when half of drivers were still convinced of this.

Electric drivers switching back is also an indication that combustion engine drivers will be less likely to switch to an electric car in the future. The RVO called this worrying since a large part of the environmental gain in the transport sector must come from more electric driving.