Passenger car mileage at record high in 2018

© Hollandse Hoogte / Michiel Wijnbergh Fotografie
In 2018, Dutch passenger vehicles clocked up a record total distance of 121.4 billion kilometres. This is 1.2 percent more than in the previous year. The higher mileage was mainly on account of vehicles registered under company name. Diesel mileage declined once again while petrol mileage increased, among business vehicles in particular. This is evident from new figures released by Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
The calculation of total Dutch passenger vehicle mileage is based on the number of passenger vehicles and the average mileage per vehicle. The latter average dropped by 1.0 percent to slightly under 13 thousand kilometres in 2018. The record-high total vehicle mileage of last year is therefore attributable to the increase in the number of road legal vehicles, which amounted to 2.2 percent on 2017.

Strongest growth in business mileage

In 2018, business-owned vehicles were responsible for 22 percent of the total vehicle mileage. They covered a total distance of 26.1 billion km, i.e. 4.0 percent more than in the previous year. Private vehicle mileage increased by 0.4 percent to 95.3 billion km.
Relative to 2008, private vehicle mileage rose by nearly 9 percent; business-owned vehicles drove 3.0 percent more kilometres than ten years previously. Most of this increase took place over the last four years.

Total Dutch passenger vehicle mileage
JaarPrivate vehicles (2008=100)Business-owned vehicles (2008=100)
2008100.0100.0
2009100.398.1
2010100.894.5
2011102.995.7
2012101.995.9
2013102.395.2
2014103.394.3
2015104.795.0
2016107.098.0
2017108.299.0
2018108.7103.0
Source: CBS, RDW

More petrol and less diesel mileage

Passenger vehicle mileage on petrol rose by 2.7 percent last year to a total of 78.4 billion km. On the other hand, diesel mileage was down by 2.5 percent (to 34.3 billion km). LPG mileage has been declining for years, dropping by 11.6 percent in 2018 to a total of 2.1 billion km. Fully electric vehicles (FEVs) nearly doubled their mileage relative to 2017, while their number was even more than double. At 0.5 percent, the share of FEVs in the total vehicle mileage is still relatively small.

Total Dutch passenger vehicle mileage
 Petrol (mld km)Diesel (mld km)LPG (mld km)Other fuel types (incl. electric) (mld km)
200168.826.47.90.0
200269.327.77.20.0
200369.729.16.40.0
200470.930.35.60.0
200570.731.85.10.1
200670.733.64.90.1
200771.635.14.80.2
200871.736.14.80.4
200971.735.74.60.9
201071.835.14.21.3
201173.335.73.91.7
201272.235.93.72.0
201372.335.53.52.6
201472.635.13.23.6
201573.335.42.94.4
201674.835.82.75.5
201776.335.22.46.1
201878.434.32.16.6
Source: CBS, RDW

Further increase in business mileage on petrol

In 2018, petrol-driven business vehicles covered nearly 24 percent more kilometre distance than in the previous year. Petrol mileage increased for the second year in a row. The total distance covered by petrol-driven business vehicles was 8.7 billion km. At the same time, the total mileage driven by diesel-powered business vehicles declined by over 4 percent to 13.6 billion km. This type of mileage already showed a decline in 2017.
The total business vehicle mileage last year was including 52 percent on diesel (vs. 59 percent in 2016) and 33 percent on petrol (vs. 26 percent in 2016).

Total business-owned vehicle mileage
JaarPetrol (year-on-year % change)Diesel (year-on-year % change)
20083.75.2
2009-0.5-4.8
2010-0.1-7.2
20112.40
2012-3.11.8
2013-5.50.1
2014-9.9-0.2
2015-8.62.7
2016-4.11.8
20178.9-3.7
201823.8-4.2
Source: CBS, RDW