While many countries promote electric cars, only Norway has taken the step of putting into place a plan to phase out sales of new cars powered by gasoline or diesel fuel entirely.
Now, however, a similar proposal is under consideration in another European country.
The Dutch parliament recently passed a motion that recommended ending sales of new cars powered solely by gasoline or diesel after 2025.
DON’T MISS: Norway’s Goal: All New Cars Will Be Emission-Free By 2025 To Cut Carbon (Aug 2015)
Sales of hybrid cars would still be allowed after 2025 under the proposed rules, and internal-combustion cars sold before 2025 would be grandfathered for operation until the ends of their lives.
Initiated by the Dutch Labor Party, the motion would still have to make it through the senate to become law, and it already faces some opposition.
Economic Affairs Minister Henk Kamp believes the proposed phase out of internal-combustion cars could violate European Union law.
2014 BMW i3 (German-market version), Amsterdam, Oct 2013
Cars that meet current EU emissions standards must, by default, be legal in all member nations, he reasoned.
So the question is whether a member state can unilaterally ban cars that are legal in other states.
Kamp has also said he doubts that electric-car market share will grow beyond the current level of about 15 percent in time for a smooth transition.
ALSO SEE: European electric and plug-in hybrid sales for January-February 2016
Even the current amount is still fairly high compared to other countries, though, indicating that The Netherlands is as good a place as any to try to phase out internal-combustion cars.
The country has the proper conditions for mass electric-car adoption, including a concentrated population with short average commuting distances, as well as high fuel prices.
The government also supports electric cars with incentives like tax breaks.
Taxi Electric Tesla Model S taxi in Amsterdam
As a result, Dutch citizens have become relatively enthusiastic about electric cars.
The Netherlands is one of the few places—along with Norway—where you’ll see a Tesla Model S luxury sedan used as a taxi, for instance.
MORE: The Netherlands: Well-Suited To Electric Cars, And Eager To Have More (Nov 2014)
The government previously set a target of putting 200,000 electric cars on Dutch roads by 2020, a goal it’s already expected to achieve.
But it’s still a big leap from that goal to an outright ban on sales of new gasoline and diesel cars, so developments over the next few years should be interesting to watch.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Based on misreporting by an English-language source and apparent mis-translation of articles from Dutch media, this article originally said The Netherlands had joined Norway in adopting a ban on sales of new cars powered solely by combustion engines by 2025. As readers Marc Blom and John Briggs pointed out, that was inaccurate. We have updated this article and a subsequent one from October 2017 to reflect the country’s goal of a ban on sales of such cars by 2030.
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