The cabinet will also make subsidies available next year for the purchase of a second-hand electric car. A total of 600 million euros is available. However, the amount per purchase will halve, with which the cabinet wants to help more people with the subsidy scheme.
Cabinet reached an agreement on climate policy for the coming years last week. Part of this includes the subsidy on the purchase of electric cars. Such a scheme has been available for some time, under which buyers of a second-hand electric car could apply for a €2,000 subsidy. However, this subsidy scheme, officially called the SEPP subsidy scheme, came to an end.
Countering exports
So now it appears that the scheme will remain available in the coming years as well. The cabinet is making a total of 600 million euros available. The money is intended to stimulate the purchase of a second-hand electric car. In this way, the cabinet also wants to counter the export of these vehicles and ensure that they remain on Dutch roads. The aim is to increase the share of electric vehicles in the Dutch fleet. Electric driving should make an important contribution to achieving the Netherlands' climate goals.
Rob Jetten, Minister for Climate and Energy, told Nieuwsuur that the subsidy per purchase will be halved. Previously, a subsidy of 2,000 euros was available when purchasing a second-hand electric car. A condition for this was that the original list price did not exceed 45,000 euros. A total of 32.4 million euros will be available in 2023. In practice, this means that over 16,000 people will be able to benefit from the scheme.
Subsidy amount halved
Whereas an amount of 2,000 euros was available this year, this will become 1,000 euros in coming years, confirms Minister Jetten. The cabinet chose this way of working to use the subsidies to support a larger group of people to buy a second-hand electric car.
Adjustment should allow the subsidy scheme to help relatively more people. In addition, the total amount available in subsidies will also increase, meaning that more people can benefit in absolute numbers as well.
More public charging stations
At the same time, the government is also investing in expanding the network of public charging points. In total, the government is allocating 90 million euros for this purpose. The investment is intended to improve the availability of charging points in the Netherlands. A survey by the NOS, based on data from the National Charging Infrastructure Agenda (NAL), shows that the available charging points are unevenly distributed across the Netherlands. For example, there are considerably more charging points in the west and centre of the Netherlands than in the north, east and south of the country.
Although the number of inhabitants varies greatly from province to province, this cannot fully explain the disparity in the number of charging stations available. It appears, for instance, that the differences in the number of charging stations per registered electric car vary widely. In Drenthe, Friesland and Limburg, it is 10.6, 10.1 and 8.3 EVs per public charging station, respectively. In Utrecht, North Holland and South Holland, this number is much lower and involves 5.6, 4.6 and 3.9 electric vehicles per public charge point, respectively. The number of charging posts per household shows a similar uneven distribution.
Differences partly explainable
Roland Ferwerda, director of the NAL, makes some comments on this distribution. For instance, Ferwerda points out that there are relatively many companies in the western Netherlands with lease drivers who have electric cars. As a result, the network of public charging stations has developed faster in this region. In addition, outside the Randstad, more people have the space for their own charging station, so the demand for public charging stations would not be as high. Ferwerda also points to differences in affluence, making residents of some provinces less likely to be able to purchase an electric car.
Despite seeing various explanations for the differences in the number of charging stations per province, NAL welcomes the investment from the cabinet. For instance, the Netherlands has been divided into squares of 500 by 500 metres by the Central Bureau of Statistics. NAL's basic principle is that at least one charging station should be available in every 500-by-500-metre area with at least 125 households. Currently, this is not always the case. NAL hopes the subsidy will change this.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Photo: geralt via Pixabay
