King Willem-Alexander turns 54 today. A nice moment to look back at a number of cars from his personal car history.
On his birthday, the king moves into the one-off Daf Kini that the car manufacturer gave to the House of Orange in 1967, at the birth of Willem-Alexander. The royal family used the open beach car, designed by the Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti, at their country retreat in Italy at the time. However, the Kini has been residing in the Daf museum for quite some time now. In terms of car history, Willem-Alexander is not as special as with his grandfather Prince Bernhard, but he certainly does not have to complain about his means of transport. There is no official list of all the cars he has worn over the years, also because the RVD does not in principle release information about the private cars of the royal couple for privacy reasons. we will therefore highlight five random copies.
1. Audi A8 L.
This one is not very difficult. Willem-Alexander usually arrives on official occasions in his tailor-made Audi A8 L with license plate AA-86. This car is through the now defunct coachbuilder Remetz extended by 45 centimeters compared to the standard A8 L. Incidentally, that company built two copies of the extended A8. The second was for Willem-Alexander and the first, pictured above, was owned by businessman Romke Kooyenga. The specifications of the two cars are almost identical, which means that the King’s A8 has the 4.2 TDI with 385 hp and 850 Nm under the hood.
2. Ford Sierra XR4x4
At the age of 21, Willem-Alexander already had a fairly rapid means of transport: a Ford Sierra XR4x4, with a 150 hp 2.8-liter V6 under the hood. Despite the four-wheel drive, the prince parked his fast Ford in a ditch in his student city of Leiden. According to a news report from that time, he was driving 40 miles per hour where 50 was allowed and lost control of the car in an overtaking action, after which he was hit by the water. By the way, he was unharmed in the accident.
3. Volvo 850
After his crash with the Ford Sierra, Willem-Alexander had one more accident in 1995, this time with his Volvo 850 station on the way to winter sports. He was driving 150 km / h on the German Autobahn when a car in front of him suddenly braked. As a result, he had to put on the brakes himself, so that the Volvo started to swing and the prince grazed a truck driving to the right of him. The Volvo eventually ended up against the guardrail of the central reservation. Willem-Alexander and his girlfriend were unharmed. It is not known what exactly this is for Volvo 850, but the news report about the crash shows that the Dutch license plate of the prince was covered with a German number plate for privacy reasons. Whether that was a fake number plate or an official number plate is not known.
4. Volvo XC90
Just like his mother Beatrix, Willem-Alexander liked to travel in Volvos. In 2013 he was spotted with his family in a Volvo XC90, the exact model variant of which is also unknown. It is clear that this is the facelifted version. Willem-Alexander has had several XC90s, because images of one circulate on the internet green pre-facelift XC90 with him behind the wheel.
5. Tesla Model X
The king’s fleet takes a special turn here, because the Tesla Model X is quite different from a Volvo XC90. Willem-Alexander has been spotted several times in the Model X P90D with license plate KH-168-J. According to the license plate register, the king still owns the car, because the Tesla has one private owner since 2016. In that year the P90D was the most powerful variant of the Model X. It is also the fastest car on this list, because the sprint to 100 km / h is completed in 4 seconds. In other words, faster than the Ferrari 456 GT that his grandfather ever owned.