The Netherlands

Major Development in 2022

The Dutch Government ambition is that by 2030, only zero emission passenger cars will be sold in the Netherlands. The Formula E-Team is the Dutch public-private platform to promote e-mobility and accelerate the transition to electric vehicles. The aim is to meet the climate targets and, in addition, to take advantage of the associated economic opportunities. 2022 marked the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. A steady growth of electric passenger cars was monitored. The sales share of electric passenger cars accounted for 35% of the total passenger car sales. That is an increase of 5% compared to 2021. The ambition is that in 2025 50% of all new passenger cars sold will have an electric powertrain and a plug and at least 30% of these vehicles will be zero emission (BEV or FCEV). If the growth continues as it did over the last years this ambition can be realized. To reach these goals, the National Charging Infrastructure Agenda and the Formula E-Team continued to work on the rollout of both charging infrastructure and the transition to electric vehicles in 2022. The National Charging Infrastructure Agenda is a multiyear and multi-stakeholder agenda to ensure that charging infrastructure is not a barrier for the electrification of the mobility sector. Additional major milestones in the Netherlands includes: the announcement of zero emission zone (ZEZ) implementation for the 30-40 largest cities by 2025, 20 cities have already announced their plans for a ZEZ and more are expected to follow, and the 1,000th zero-emission public transport bus was delivered - making 1/5th of the total bus fleet for public transport zero-emission. The Netherlands is on track for its target to have 100% of public transport buses zero-emission by 2030.

Policy developments

The new cabinet was installed in January 2022. In the coalition agreement, a climate and transition fund was announced with a budget of €35 billion to expand the current energy infrastructure, realize green industry politics, and help make mobility systems and the built environment more sustainable.   In November 2022, the Dutch Climate and Energy Exploration (KEV) was published. This yearly report monitors the progress made on the climate and energy policies. After the KEV was published, the government announced that a multi-departmental climate research program would be conducted. The goal of this research was to explore any extra measures that could be taken to achieve the goals that have been set. As far as mobility is concerned, the most drastic measure proposed is a potential ban on fossil fuel company cars from 2025. Decisions on which measures will actually be implemented will be made in the spring of 2023.

Financial and fiscal incentives

In 2022, the height of the purchase subsidy available for electric passenger cars was increased drastically, from €28 million in 2021 to €91 million in 2022, increasing its availability for consumers. There were also two new purchase grant schemes presented in 2022. One for zero emission trucks and one for zero emission construction equipment. Both schemes were very successful and the available budget depleted quickly. All purchase grant schemes will therefore be continued over 2023.

Market developments

Vehicle2Grid will be further developed over the upcoming period. In 2022, the city of Utrecht had a world premiere of V2G technology for deployment on a large scale. Hyundai contributes to the project in Utrecht, deploying 25 IONIQ 5 vehicles with V2G technology and using them as a bidirectional production car. The IONIQ 5 vehicles are deployed by We Drive Solar, a company offering different types of shared car memberships to residents of Utrecht. Utrecht has thereby made important steps in its ambition to become the first bidirectional city and region in the world. More and more buses in the Netherlands are electric; in 2022 they increased to around 80% of new sales. As it is often hard to predict how much energy is left in the battery, more buses are put on schedule than actually necessary—with companies planning months in advance. The model presented by the TU Eindhoven can predict the energy use of a bus on a certain route that takes into account route information such as the maximum speed but also the weather and the incline of the road. By using this model, bus schedules can me made dynamically which leads to efficiency and flexibility.

Outlook

Following an initial focus on electric passenger cars, 2022 showed a serious shift in focus towards a diverse range of commercial vehicles. Medium and heavy duty vehicles, inland ships and even construction machines are emerging technologies and will continue to be so in the years to come. Another action plan has been launched in the final months of 2022, which focuses in specifically on how to best use the available grid capacity. The action plan was launched under the smart charging working group of the National Charging Infrastructure Agenda and is called ‘Smart Charging for everyone 2022 – 2025’. The goal of the action plan is for 60% of all charging sessions to be ‘smart’ by 2025. If this is achieved, millions of electric vehicles can be used to temporarily store energy, helping make the energy system more flexible. In conclusion, the upcoming period will focus on continuing the shift to zero emission in all modalities and understanding how to build an energy system that works hand in hand with the mobility system to create a clean, green and sustainable future.