To rule is to look into the future. The cabinet wants lease drivers to be able to choose only fully electric cars by 2025. In 2030, two small nuclear power plants are to be built in the Netherlands. In 2035, new cars with a petrol or diesel engine will no longer be allowed to be sold. By 2050, the country must be CO2-neutral. It could be added that everyone should be rich by 2100. And in 2150, the Netherlands must be a heaven on earth, in which everyone is eternally happy.
Until then, you can just mess around and the coal-fired power stations can be fired up again. Looking ahead is easier than actually achieving goals. Usually something unforeseen happens. And otherwise the lobby is obstructive or the electorate will revolt, as with the nitrogen plans.
The latest plan is to introduce road pricing by 2030. Not with a rush hour charge that requires complicated equipment such as satellite boxes or highway cameras, but in the simplest way. The number of kilometers driven is settled annually during the APK inspection. All it takes to prevent fraud is that the vehicle’s mileage cannot be tampered with.
With this arrangement, the lost income from petrol excise duties and road tax must be compensated, because electric cars do not need petrol or diesel and are still exempt from road tax. Despite the temporary reduction in excise duty, the current dirty fleet is good for no less than 14 billion euros in tax revenue, and including BPM, the tax on the purchase of a car, even more than 15 billion. That is an enormous sum for which a little more is being done than building roads and viaducts.
If there is a charge per kilometer driven – say: 5 cents per kilometer or 1,000 euros for 20 thousand kilometers driven – it will no longer be the strongest shoulders that carry the heaviest loads. It becomes equal monks, equal hoods. People with a three meter long Mini Cooper have to pay the same as people who can afford the luxury of a PC Hoofttractor or a nine meter limousine. The curb weight of the car, which is now a factor in the calculation of the motor vehicle tax, no longer matters. But inequality has always been this cabinet’s least problem.
If the state is now in the process of introducing road pricing, it could also be done for e-bikes right away. Ultimately, they are just as polluting as electric cars. And the rapid rise of the vehicle that, according to the Volkskrant Magazine is even a status symbol, has turned the bike paths into a sanctuary for hooliganism. There should be something to pay for.
If cheating with the odometer of cars can be prevented, it should also be possible with that of e-bikes. Of course, the e-bike users will stand on their hind legs, as will the farmers, industrialists and retirees. And of course the leaders of VVD, CDA and D66 will get the wind at their congress.
But to rule is to foresee. It doesn’t have to be today.