Further in the minus
Industry associations Bovag and RAI Association expect that the Dutch car market will remain at this year’s low level at least until 2026. The electrification of the vehicle fleet is also under pressure.
In 2024, 381,227 new passenger cars were registered in the Netherlands. This was 3.1 percent more than the previous year. However, this was significantly less (15 percent!) than in 2019, for example. At that time, 446,114 new passenger cars were registered in the Netherlands. For 2025, industry associations Bovag and RAI Association expect another decline. The registration counter is expected to end this year at around 367,000 new passenger cars. This is about 4 percent less than last year.
2026 will not be better for the automotive industry. The forecast for 2026 is actually below this year’s level. RAI Association and Bovag are aiming for 361,000 new passenger cars and 22,800 light commercial vehicles for next year. They conclude that the market will thus remain at a historically low level. Persistent political and economic uncertainty, moderate purchasing power growth, and the cautious consumer behavior resulting from this are at least partly to blame.
Bovag and RAI Association fear further stagnation in the sales of electric cars and plug-in hybrids, “[…] for example through the harmonization of the addition rules at 22 percent from 2026. This is expected to lead to a temporary shift towards plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), while the sales of fully electric cars will actually decline slightly,” according to Bovag.