For business owners based in the Netherlands, electric vehicles are becoming less expensive than those fitted with conventional engines, thanks to a consistent national and local subsidies scheme.
For example, businesses in the Netherlands can buy Nissan’s new e-NV200 electric van for just €4,950 ($6,500) – less than 25 percent of its retail price – thanks to a program to remove polluting vehicles from the streets.
The city of Rotterdam is offering business buyers €2,500 scrappage incentives which, together with other state-funded subsidies, can bring the price of the base e-NV200 Visia Flex down to just €4,950 and the price of a new Nissan Leaf down from €24,110 to just €7,450 ($9,780). Prices exclude VAT and monthly battery hire.
Rotterdam also offers EV users one year of free parking in the city center and subsidies of up to €1,450 if they install a home charger using green electricity. The city is also expanding its own public quick charger network.
Other cities in the Netherlands are also promoting zero-emission mobility. In Amsterdam, for instance, electric vehicle incentives bring the cost of an e-NV200 Visia Flex down to just €5,650. A nationwide EV support scheme sees an automatic €3,000 taken from the list price of an electric van or taxi and this is then supplemented by local municipal EV subsidies of up to €7,000.
However, these big discounts are not offered indefinitely. Rotterdam’s scrappage subsidy is only available to the first 5,000 applicants and only for orders placed before December with deliveries by the end of the year.
EV registrations in Europe surpassed 45,000 last year and are forecast to rise to 400,000 in 2015.
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