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Average purchase price of new passenger car 2022: that’s quite a shock

December 14, 2022

Average car purchase price: why are prices rising so fast?

The average purchase price of a new passenger car in the Netherlands has been rising for years. This is due in part to stricter government BPM rules in which CO2 emissions are increasingly fined higher. But it is also because more and more Dutch people are switching to electric cars. Those BEVs are generally a bit more expensive to buy than a gasoline or diesel car, and you notice that in the average purchase prices. In addition, raw materials have become more expensive/scarcity, causing prices to rise.

Average car purchase price

Still, the difference in average purchase price between 2022 and 2021 is quite spicy. In 2021, the average purchase price of a new passenger car in the Netherlands was still 40,423 euros, but by 2022 it will have risen to 43,072 euros. That’s an increase of 2,649 euros. In 2020, it was still €38,373 and in 2019 it was only €36,881. In 2017 and 2018, the average purchase price of a new passenger car in the Netherlands was still 31,499 and 33,928 euros, respectively.

Average car purchase price

The A-segment

We also scrutinize the numbers by segment. In the A-segment – the segment of the smallest cars in the Netherlands – the average purchase price in 2022 is a whopping 18,772 euros. In the year 2021, this was still 17,159 euros. In 2017, this was 14,126 euros. Thus, from 2017 to 2022, the average price of an A-segment car increased by 4,646 euros.

The B-segment

The B-segment also saw an average price increase. In 2022, the Netherlands records an average of 28,962 euros versus 27,693 euros in 2021. In 2017, the average was still 21,937 euros.

The C-segment

Finally, some figures on average purchase prices in the C-segment. In 2017 you paid an average of 33,416 euros for a car in the C-segment, by 2021 this had risen to 41,601 euros, but by 2022 we are already talking about 42,688 euros.

Average purchase price of new passenger cars by fuel type (2022)