CE Delft was commissioned by the Netherlands Association for Sustainable Energy (Nederlandse Vereniging Duurzame Energie, NVDE) to study the costs for employers and employees of zero-emission fleet standardisation for company cars. This standard would require all new company cars to be zero-emission. According to our study, introducing such a standardisation in 2027 will result in an increase in the percentage of electric company cars from 57 to 66% in 2030. We estimate that this could achieve an annual CO2 reduction of about 0.7 Mtonne by 2030, while the expected cumulative reduction over the years 2027-2030 is about 2.0 Mtonne.
Our study also shows that fleet standardisation is unlikely to increase costs for many employers. In fact, from 2025, in many situations the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of an electric car is already more favourable than a fossil-powered car. Only for smaller cars (A-segment) is the TCO of electric cars still above that of fossil-powered cars after 2027. These results also appear to be robust for adjustments in the assumptions for the TCO calculations.
Nevertheless, fleet standardisation does seem to lead to higher costs for many employees. Because the purchase price of electric cars is still generally higher until 2030, employees will pay more additional taxes for an electric car than for a comparable, fossil-powered car. Employees could be spared this, however, by partially maintaining the reduced addition for emission-free company cars beyond 2025.