The possibilities of EV ownership in the Netherlands are changing. In 2025, government purchase subsidies have stopped and previous tax exemptions are being phased out, which makes buying an electric car much more expensive now. In consequence, one-third of EV drivers are considering going back to petrol cars, according to a recent survey. Will EV ownership become increasingly exclusive for consumers of lower purchasing power? How can these changes impact the Dutch energy transition objectives for 2030 and 2050?
The Netherlands is on board with the trend in the rest of the EU: government incentives and subsidies for electric mobility are being reduced, phased out or removed entirely. As of 2025, the subsidy for purchasing an electric car, which in 2024 gave buyers €2950 for new vehicles and €2000 for used ones, has been eliminated. On top of that, the exemption for EV owners to pay Motor Vehicle Tax (MRB), also known as road tax, will be gradually phased out until 2030. This means that if you owned an EV in 2024, you paid no MRB at all; in 2025 you pay 25% of the total tax; between 2026 and 2029 you will pay 75% of the total tax; and from 2030 onwards you will pay the full amount, as detailed by the car owners’ association ANWB report Driving in 2025. Since road tax is mostly calculated according to the weight of the vehicle, EVs would end up paying more than internal combustion cars, due to how heavy their batteries are. However, the ANWB hopes there will be a correction to compensate EVs for their extra weight.
Nevertheless, the panorama does not seem as bright for EV owners as it used to be. This is reflected in the latest National EV and Driver Survey, conducted by the Electric Drivers Association (VER), the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (NRO) and the University of Groningen. The study, which surveyed more than 3500 EV drivers in the country, shows that 30% of current EV drivers are now considering switching back to petrol cars due to the reduction in benefits. In 2030, when the tax benefits will be completely eliminated, almost 60% of those drivers say they would go back to internal combustion cars. The study highlights that not only EV drivers would go back to petrol, but current petrol drivers would not switch to electric.
This is not a good prospect for the Dutch government’s plans to have a completely zero-emissions fleet by 2050, which includes having only zero-emissions new cars sold in the Netherlands from 2030 onwards. According to the survey, ‘only 29% of respondents believe that the government is seriously committed to stimulating electric driving, a significant decrease compared to last year (50%)’.
The government seems to be shifting the EV transition’s financial responsibility from the state to consumers and the market, but this bet could potentially slow down the transition itself, or make EV ownership out of reach of buyers with less purchasing power. Right now EV sales in the Netherlands are healthy and increasing. As of February 2025, despite overall car sales decreasing 8.3% compared to the same period last year, new EV registrations did increase 22%, making EVs amount to 36.6% of the total sales of new cars in the country, as reported by NU.nl. It remains to be seen how the decrease in government incentives could affect that momentum, and the next five years will be decisive in the process.
On the other hand, consumer behaviour is determined by a converging number of different forces, and other factors also contribute to the decisions of potential EV owners. New, less expensive EVs are coming to the market and better technologies for battery efficiency are being developed, which makes them more convenient in terms of cost and range. Charging infrastructure is being constantly improved and charging costs, especially at home and coming from solar, could prove more effective in the long run than refuelling fossil fuels for internal combustion cars, potentially balancing out the decrease in government benefits. At the end of the day, there are still many factors at play for consumers to decide.
Written by Juan Álvarez Umbarila