Survey: in these provinces almost no one has an electric car

Where do electric cars really drive?

Most electric cars in the Netherlands are lease cars. And that makes it difficult to find out where they really drive. Because on paper, they are often registered at a lease company’s headquarters – in Amsterdam, for example – while the driver simply lives in Maastricht or Den Helder.

That’s why CBS looked at the actual location of electric cars. Not to the address on the license plate, but to where the car is used in practice. This gives a much more realistic picture of how electric cars are distributed across the Netherlands.

South Holland at the top

What seems? South Holland stands head and shoulders above the rest. On January 1, 2024, more than 95,000 cars were running on electricity there – well above the national average. That is considerably more than the national average. North Holland (79,000+) and North Brabant (72,000+) are also doing well. This is followed by Gelderland (51,000+) and North Brabant (44,000+).

Randstad

Especially the densely populated Randstad regions score high. This makes sense: more people live there and the supply of charging points is often better. Moreover, environmental zones are stricter and the average income is somewhat higher.

In addition, business use of electric cars plays a big role. In cities like Utrecht, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, many business drivers drive electric. And that ticks in the statistics.

Zeeland

At the bottom of the list we find mostly rural provinces. In Zeeland, Drenthe and Groningen, the share of fully electric cars is below 3%. But there, too, the number of EVs is growing – only somewhat slower.

Source: RVO / CBS

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