# Dutch roads see 1.6bn more kilometres as car fleet grows

> Statistics Netherlands (CBS) says Dutch vehicles drove 1.3% more in 2025, driven by a larger car fleet rather than by people driving more, while electric cars made up 10.8% of car mileage.

Society · published 2026-11-05 16:43 · https://nlnow.nl/a/dutch-drivers-cover-1-6bn-more-kilometres-as-car-numbers-grow/

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) says Dutch cars drove 1.6 billion more kilometres in 2025 than a year earlier, a rise of 1.3%. Passenger cars drove most of the extra distance, but vans, scheduled buses and campers also drove more. Passenger cars account for 80.1% of all vehicle mileage.

The rise comes from the number of cars, not from heavier use. There were 2.1% more passenger cars in 2025, while the average distance per car fell 0.8%. Private individuals drive 77.6% of car mileage, averaging 11.2 thousand km per car, 0.7% less than a year earlier. Business drivers average 18.7 thousand km.

**Electric cars' share of kilometres has grown every year as diesel's shrinks** (% of car kilometres; source: CBS (provisional figures))

- 2018: 0.5
- 2019: 1.2
- 2020: 2.3
- 2021: 3.6
- 2022: 5.3
- 2023: 7
- 2024: 8.9
- 2025: 10.8

Fully electric cars drove 10.8% of car mileage in 2025. That is 23.1% more than a year earlier and almost nine times the 2019 level. Hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars drove 17.4% and 39.4% more kilometres, as their numbers rose 19.8% and 40.4%.

Most kilometres are still driven in petrol cars, but petrol kilometres fell in 2024 and 2025. Diesel kilometres are down by two thirds on six years earlier. More than half of car mileage was driven in Euro 6 cars, the cleanest category for combustion engines. Older cars with a Euro 3 label or lower make up 8.0% of the fleet and drive 3.8% of kilometres.

People under 30 drove the most, averaging 13.6 thousand km a year. Those aged 70 and older averaged 7.2 thousand km. Among private cars, those from Almere drove the most on average (14.2 thousand km), followed by Lelystad (13.4 thousand) and Dronten (13.3 thousand). Terschelling was lowest at 6.9 thousand km.

The figures use a new, improved method that estimates kilometres from odometer readings. CBS also revised its road vehicle fleet figures.

## Background

- **CBS (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek)**: Statistics Netherlands, the independent government body that produces the official statistics on the Dutch economy and society.

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