Another major consumer is the car. Cars – including electric ones – use an enormous amount of energy. An average household can run for a whole week on the full battery of a fairly compact Nissan Leaf e+. So all the electricity used for the dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer, television, vacuum cleaner, lighting. The Leaf burns this charge in three and a half hours with a return trip from Utrecht to Geleen. Petrol cars are even more inefficient. One third of electric cars run on sustainably generated electricity. So rather go electric than with a petrol car.
Is the train cheaper? Take a one-way ticket (second class, no discount) from Utrecht Central Station to Goor station in Twente. This costs 22.14 euros. The same route with a car driving on the highway 1 in 16 is 119 kilometers. At a petrol price of 2.30 euros per liter, you only lose 17.10 euros on fuel. In terms of fuel, a car is still cheaper even with these prices. But if insurance, depreciation and maintenance are included, the train is less expensive. The sum changes again if you travel with two people or have a discount card for the train.
How does the e-car perform compared to the train? It covers an average of five kilometers per kilowatt hour and consumes 24 kilowatt hours during this journey. The ANWB uses an average price for a public charging station (not fast charging, which is usually more expensive) of 41 cents. In total, the ride will cost 9.84 euros. Only looking at fuel costs, the e-car is the cheapest. But a train (which runs on electricity for most of this journey) is the least taxing, according to figures from knowledge platform Crow.
If you do go by petrol car, it is best to do so as efficiently as possible: the more passengers on board, the lower the consumption per person. Driving slower also helps. According to Milieu Centraal, whoever drives 100 on the highway in the evening instead of 120 saves an average of 0.7 liters of petrol per hundred kilometers (1.6 euros). Whoever drives 90 instead of 100, shaves an average of another 0.3 liters (70 cents).
You can also adjust your driving style. Accelerating less quickly saves a lot of energy. Upshifting faster too: cars with a manual gearbox and a modern turbo engine never need to exceed 2000 rpm in the flat Netherlands, where little is demanded of the engine.
Other tips (which everyone actually knows): leave excess luggage at home, drive as few short trips as possible (consumption is twice as high with a cold engine), take the (electric) bicycle or public transport more often or work at home.