To start, from 2009 onwards the number of registered electric passenger cars on the road in Belgium rose significantly, with the highest volume recorded in 2019. In 2009, ten electric passenger cars were counted in Belgium, and it increased to 1,792 vehicles in 2014. In 2019, the volume amounted to 15,338, which is approximately eight times more compared to 2014. The total number of hybrid vehicles on the road in Belgium saw a similar trend between the period of 2008 and 2018. The volume increased from 11 hybrid vehicles in 2008 to just over 92,500 in 2018. Zooming into the most sold electric passenger car models in Belgium in 2018, Japanese car manufacturer Nissan has sold nearly 975 Leaf models and was ranked first, whereas Tesla sold 535 Model S cars. Volkswagen sold 415 e-Golfs, the electric version of the Golf generation, closing the top three most sold electric passenger car models.
Besides positive developments in the Belgian electric car industry, the future for electric bicycles is looking bright as well. In fact, nearly half the sales of bicycles were electric bikes in 2019. Bicycle retailers indicated that roughly 47 percent of their sales consisted of electric bicycles, whereas 17 percent were city bikes. Observing the newly registered electric motorcycles in Flanders (Belgium), numbers increased from 82 in 2017 to 455 in 2019.
With the increasing sales of electric vehicles there is a need for charging points for EV car owners. In 2019, Belgium offered just over 6,000 normal charging stations (less than 22 kilowatt) and roughly 360 fast-charging points (more than 22 kilowatt). This is a significant increase compared to the previous year, which shows the growth rate of charging points. If in 2017 growth amounted to 1.7 percent, in 2019 the rate increased to nearly 118 percent. The highest volume incline of charging points was registered in 2015, when Belgium saw a growth rate of 132.8 percent. However, comparing the electric vehicle infrastructure to the Netherlands, the Dutch offered far more stations for electric drivers to charge their car batteries. In 2019, approximately 41,000 charging stations were found across the Netherlands.
Driving an electric vehicle can give certain advantages, such as a decrease of the eco footprint or saving fuel costs. However, what do Belgians think about the advantages of electric vehicles? According to a survey on alternative fuels, just over 45 percent of the respondents indicated the zero CO2 emissions of electric vehicles as an advantage, whereas 28 percent mentioned that they would choose an electric car due to its tax advantages.
