Battery-electric cars took 48.9% of the Dutch new-car market in August 2026 — 12,925 registrations out of 26,455. Tesla finished ninth among brands on 1,023 cars, but posted the largest year-on-year gain of anyone in the top ten.
A flat market with a different engine
Total volume barely moved: 26,455 cars against 26,496 in August 2025, a difference of 41 units. What changed was what people bought. BEV share rose 14.9 percentage points year on year while hybrids gave up 6.1 points, and petrol-only cars are now a rounding error in the Dutch market at 6.1%.
| Powertrain | August 2026 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Battery-electric | 12,925 | 48.9% |
| Hybrid | 11,339 | 42.9% |
| Petrol only | 1,613 | 6.1% |
| LPG | 192 | 0.7% |
| Diesel | 180 | 0.7% |
One line in that table is a first: LPG outsold diesel over a full month, 192 cars to 180. Diesel has not simply declined in the Netherlands, it has left the private new-car market.
Where Tesla stands
| Rank | Brand | Cars | Share | vs Aug 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kia | 2,835 | 10.7% | +4.9% |
| 2 | Toyota | 2,201 | 8.3% | -1.3% |
| 3 | BMW | 1,847 | 7.0% | +19.2% |
| 4 | Volkswagen | 1,564 | 5.9% | -25.4% |
| 5 | Renault | 1,512 | 5.7% | -16.7% |
| 6 | Hyundai | 1,395 | 5.3% | -18.2% |
| 7 | Skoda | 1,375 | 5.2% | -24.0% |
| 8 | Mercedes-Benz | 1,173 | 4.4% | +16.5% |
| 9 | Tesla | 1,023 | 3.9% | +31.8% |
| 10 | Ford | 999 | 3.8% | -18.0% |
Tesla's +31.8% is the strongest figure in the table, and the pattern around it is worth reading. The three brands that grew — BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Tesla — are the three with the most electric-heavy Dutch line-ups. The brands that fell hardest are Volkswagen Group and the Korean volume marques, down 18% to 25% each. In a market where half of all buyers now choose a BEV, the ranking is being reshuffled by how much of a brand's range is electric.
Ninth place on 3.9% share is not a commanding position, and it is worth being straight about scale: Tesla sells a two-model range against Kia's full catalogue. But Tesla remains the maker of the country's single most popular car. The Model Y was the Netherlands' best-selling car of any kind in the first half of 2026 with 4,317 registrations, three ahead of the petrol Toyota Aygo X.
Year to date, and what the Netherlands means for Europe
Through eight months the Netherlands has registered 228,760 new cars, down 3.8% on the 237,689 of a year earlier, with BEV share at 39.3% against 34.4%. A shrinking market that is electrifying quickly is the same shape France reported for August, and it sits above the 25% Europe-wide BEV share recorded in July.
For Tesla the Netherlands carries weight out of proportion to its roughly 3% of European volume. The Dutch RDW is the regulator that approved FSD (Supervised), and the Article 39 evidence file now heading for the EU's 6 October vote rests on that national approval. A market that is half-electric and hosts Tesla's regulatory bridgehead in Europe is one where a 31.8% gain is worth more than ninth place suggests.