Cars last longer in the Netherlands. In 2019, the average demolition age again increased and the number of demolished cars also decreased.
Sustainability is nowadays very important on all fronts. That kite also applies to the Dutch fleet. On average, a car in the Netherlands goes to demolition a little later than before. According to VWE Automotive, the average age of a scrapped car was 19.2 years in 2019. That is 2.4 months older than a year earlier. In addition, 13,000 fewer cars were scrapped last year than in 2018, a decrease of 5.7 percent.
Old cars in particular last longer, because strikingly enough, the number of demolished cars of less than 10 years old increased by 16 percent in 2019. According to VWE, many of these cars were damaged, but cars are also declared a total loss faster due to rising repair costs. The relatively least sustainable ‘young’ car appears to be the Renault Fluence ZE. Of this model, which was no more than eight years old, no fewer than 23 were demolished last year. An absurd 28.8 percent of the total number of Fluences registered in the Netherlands.