In 2020, the Netherlands refueled 1.4 billion liters less fuel in the first ten months than in the same period in 2019, according to an analysis of the CBS figures by industry organization Bovag. The cause is obvious.
From January to October, a total of 5.8 billion liters of diesel, 4.1 billion liters of petrol and 170 million liters of LPG were refueled. The percentage decrease compared to 2019 per fuel is 11, 13.5 and 14 percent respectively. All fuels thus suffered a blow, with LPG being hit the hardest and diesel sales showing the least severe decline. Prior to the corona crisis, there was still a slight increase in the number of liters of gasoline refueled, but the month of April recorded the most severe decline of the year. In that month, total sales fell below a billion with 818 million liters.
The figures for the last two months of 2020 are not yet known. Fuel sales recovered slightly from May, but in October, new measures regarding the corona virus once again showed a decrease. De Bovag expects that the annual total will be barely 12 billion liters, which would be the lowest level in about 30 years. It seems that this dip in fuel demand is mainly caused by people working from home more often. Increasing sales of EVs will now contribute to this even less, although the market share of EVs is 20 percent of new sales this year. It goes without saying that the increasing number of EVs in the Dutch fleet and working from home will not do any good for fuel requirements in the long term.