Last month, Belgium rounded the cape of 100 000 EVs on the road, says EV Belgium, the federation of zero-emission vehicles in Belgium. They assume that number will be pushed this year to 200 000 and up to half a million by 2025, driven by the coming obligation that all new company cars beyond 2026 will be zero-emission.

Delivery times are getting shorter gradually after worldwide shortages, accelerating the expansion of the EV fleet from 71 651 on August 1, 2022, by adding another 31 391 fully electric cars in six months.

The 100 000th EV registered was going to an employee of design furniture manufacturer Vitra, a Polestar 2, Arval lease car. Since it entered the Belgian market, Polestar has delivered some 3 000 EVs to customers. Some 41% of the lease cars Arval delivered in 2022 were ‘electrified’ (8 376). Of these, 3 644 were battery electric cars (BEVs).

Running quite smoothly

According to Jochen De Smet, President of EV Belgium, the transition toward electric mobility is running smoothly in Belgium. “We see an increase in the number of orders, there is a rapid growth in the number of companies active in the field of E–Mobility, and the installation of charging stations at companies and homes is running smoothly. The roll-out of public charging infrastructure is also evolving rapidly, except in the Walloon part of the country.”

But most EVs are company cars or bought by self-employed (87,1%), according to car federation Febiac. Private sales were still trailing by 12,9% in 2022. To win them over to make the transition, it will be crucial that when those leasing cars come to the end of the contract, they remain in Belgium to be offered on the second-hand market.

“Maintaining the new electric leasing fleet in Belgium is an important condition to realize these prospects; they must remain in Belgium as much as possible as 2nd hand cars on the private market,“ Jochen De Smet emphasizes.