The number of plug-in cars – including electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles – has surpassed the one million mark for the first time in the Netherlands, new data from Statistics Netherlands has revealed.
According to the data, as of the first quarter of 2025, there were some 594,000 fully electric vehicles and 410,000 plug-in hybrids in the Netherlands.
The quarter also saw a shift in ownership of plug-in vehicles – in previous quarters, electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles were more commonly owned by businesses, but in Q1 2025, private owners became the majority for the first time.
On the road
As of 1 April, there were some 9.3 million passenger cars on the road in the Netherlands, the majority of which are traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.
However, the share of petrol cars has dropped by 1.3% compared to the same quarter in 2024, Statistics Netherlands noted, while diesel cars saw a sharp decline of 12.3%. At the same time, the number of fully-electric cars increased by 33.3% while non-plug-in hybrids rose by 23.9%.
Car ownership
As of the first quarter of this year, private individuals in the Netherlands owned 503,000 plug-in cars, surpassing the 442,000 owned by businesses.
Among private owners, the number of fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars is nearly equal (245,000 to 258,000), while along businesses, fully electric cars still dominate (324,000 to 118,000).
‘Among private households with a plug-in car, 46% have just one plug-in car, while 4% have more than one (and no cars with an internal combustion engine at all),’ Statistics Netherlands noted. ‘50% of households with a plug-in vehicle also have at least one car with an internal combustion engine, in addition to one or more plug-in cars. In most cases, that is a petrol-driven car.’
As of last year, plug-in vehicles accounted for nearly 15% of the total number of kilometres driven by Dutch passenger cars, or 17.7 billion kilometres. This is up from just 3% in 2019.
Of the total distance, 10 billion kilometres were driven by business drivers, the data showed. Read more here.
