Netherlands planning private EV subsidies

The Dutch government intends to grant a subsidy of 4,000 euros for the purchase of privately used electric cars up to a list price of 45,000 euros from July this year, according to local media.

There will also be a premium of 2,000 euros for used electric cars purchased through a specialist dealer. According to the report by RTL Nieuws, the purchase of used cars via specialist dealers is to prevent subsidy fraud via private sales. Since increasingly cheaper electric cars are expected to come onto the market in the coming years, the purchase subsidy is to be phased out gradually until 2025. According to the report, Dutch Environment Minister Stientje van Veldhoven will announce the details of the programme in a few weeks.

The planned premium is part of the so-called “Klimaatakoord” (climate agreement), with which the Netherlands wants to reduce its CO2 emissions by 49 per cent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. Heavy industry will have to pay a carbon tax, for example, in this context. The government had agreed on a subsidy for the transport sector, but this still has to be worked out in consultation with environmental clubs and the car industry. The idea of boosting the purchase of electric cars via reduced-price loans was rejected in favour of the subsidy because of its more complicated implementation.

There have already been successful promotional measures in the Netherlands. Last year, the Tesla Model 3 sold better than a VW Polo and is mostly responsible for the fact that the Netherlands will have a 15.0 per cent share of the electric vehicle market in 2019 (after 6.0 per cent in 2018). One of the reasons for the popularity of Tesla was tax breaks on leasing. With an entry-level price of 48,900 euros in the Netherlands, Model 3 remained just below the limit of 50,000 euros, above which a tax of 22 instead of four per cent must be paid on the leasing rate. However, this special leasing tax regulation is apparently to be abolished soon – which had further increased the rush for the Model 3 at the end of the year.

rtlnieuws.nl (Dutch), thenextweb.com