‘Uncertainty about MRB hinders sales of electric cars’

The sales growth that fully electric cars have experienced in the Netherlands in recent years appears to be leveling off somewhat. First there was the explosive growth: in 2016, according to the Bovag and Rai Association, only barely 5,000 new ones were sold, in 2018 already 25,000 and in 2020 there were more than 75,000. In 2022 there were barely 80,000 and this year the counter (until August) is 82,000. So there is still growth, but it is clearly slower.

According to Professor Maarten Steinbuch, the leveling off growth is partly a result of uncertainty about the possible high MRB that EV drivers may soon have to pay. He explains that opposite News hour. The current and now outgoing cabinet wants to abolish the MRB exemption for electric cars by 2025. Then you will also have to pay MRB with a fully electric car and it may also be more expensive than with a comparable petrol car due to the generally higher weight. How and whether all this will come into practice is still uncertain. That also depends on what the next government plans. According to Steinbuch, this uncertainty creates a hurdle in the transition to electric driving. The ANWB says otherwise News hour that it hopes to at least see a weight correction in the MRB calculation for electric cars.

The fact that sales of electric cars are not going as fast as the government had probably hoped is also reflected in the relatively slow depletion of this year’s subsidy pot. The portion available for new cars is still about half full after more than nine months. Steinbuch thinks the subsidy amount (€2,950) is too low, because it ‘does not convince people’ if they are already spending a lot of money. For second-hand cars, he believes, the subsidy condition of the original list price (€45,000) is a problem, because second-hand electric cars with a sufficiently interesting driving range were more expensive when new.