No exemption
Electric vans are sometimes too heavy to drive with a B driving license. An exemption seemed to be on the way, but it never happened. A C driving license is simply required above a certain weight.
Anyone who wants to drive an electric van may encounter an excessively high maximum permitted mass for driving license B. This not only concerns the mass of the vehicle itself, but the combined mass with the maximum permitted load. That weight may not exceed 3,500 kilos, otherwise driving license C (or a truck driving license) is required. Because this restriction hindered the rise of electric vans, there was an exemption earlier this year and a permanent exemption would also be worked on. However, this will not happen after all, as Minister Mark Harbers of I&W reports to the House of Representatives.
The ‘toleration situation for driving license B’ for electric commercial vehicles from 3,501 to 4,250 kilos will expire on January 1, 2024 and the minister has decided that it will be enforced as of July 1, 2024. This means that as of July 1, you can also receive a fine if you drive such a car with only a B driving license in your pocket. Harbers also realizes that this is a big setback for entrepreneurs who have made the switch. However, according to him, this is a trade-off between encouraging electric transport and road safety, and the latter has been chosen.
Bypassing a truck driver’s license
The minister states that a total of about 1,000 of these heavy electric vans are registered in the Netherlands. For owners who do not have a class C driver’s license, there is still an option to continue driving these cars. Then the permitted maximum mass in the vehicle registration register must be reduced to 3,500 kilos, after all, then the car simply falls into the regular driving license B category. In practice, however, this means that you can transport a lot less in it than you may have planned.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl