83% in one day: subsidy is a means, not a strategy

How to finance? · Point of view · 4 min read

On 29 September, AanZET reopened with €119.2 million for zero-emission trucks. One day later, €98.7 million had already been requested. That is good news, as long as the subsidy finances a plan instead of replacing one.

83% in one day

The second AanZET round of 2026 opened on Tuesday 29 September: €119.2 million, with up to €115,200 per truck. By the next day, €98.7 million, or 83% of the budget, had already been requested. That fits the pattern: every AanZET round since 2022 has been oversubscribed, and every year a lottery was needed.

Including this round, around €420 million in AanZET budget has been made available since 2022. By May 2026, 3,844 trucks had an award and 1,538 were already on the road. In April 2026, about 58% of all zero-emission trucks in the Netherlands had been financed with AanZET.

So entrepreneurs want to move, and the government is backing them. Take the subsidy. But don’t let the subsidy decide your strategy.

The award is where the work starts

Winning the subsidy is not the finish line. The conditions are clear, and they matter:

• Order within a month. Within one month of the grant decision, you must be able to show that the purchase is definitive.
• Keep it four years. The truck has to stay registered to you for four consecutive years. If you sell it earlier, you may have to pay back part of the subsidy.
• Deliver within twelve months. You request the final settlement within 12 months, with the registration and the invoice. The 70% advance depends on it.
• Choose your instruments. Since 2026, AanZET and the MIA tax deduction can no longer be combined on the same truck.

The official evaluation shows what happens when plans don’t hold. Depending on the year, 2% to 20% of the awarded budget was never used. In 2024, one in five awarded subsidies was eventually handed back, because companies cancelled the purchase or went bankrupt.

“Don’t look for a plan once you’ve won a subsidy. Look for the subsidy that finances your plan.”

Haijo Kampinga

A truck is not a transition

Then comes the real question. Where do you charge the truck, on which grid connection, under which contract and at what price? Does it fit your planning and your TMS, especially if your routes are less predictable and cross borders? Anyone can add a diesel truck to the pool. An eTruck asks you to think differently.

A truck is one part of a system that also includes charging hardware, grid capacity and possibly storage, energy contracts, planning software, maintenance and uptime, residual value and financing, and the people who work with all of it. The AanZET evaluation itself names grid congestion as the bottleneck for further growth: investments are being postponed because companies cannot get a grid connection for their chargers.

Offers often arrive per component: a truck here, a charger there, a bundle from one brand. Operators end up with parallel systems for a mixed fleet, or with lock-in. Neither leads to operational excellence.

Reverse the order

So here is our position: don’t look for a plan once you’ve won a subsidy. Look for the subsidy that finances your plan.

Start from the operation: routes and duty cycles, depot and grid position, replacement cycle, energy strategy and customer commitments. Design the target system. Then build the funding stack around it, from purchase subsidies and tax deductions to the truck-toll difference, green financing and European co-funding, and apply in the right order. Timing rules differ per scheme. Some require you to apply before you order, others within a set period after.

Decisions led by the subsidy risk lost grants, trucks that sit idle and a frustrated organisation. Decisions led by the plan shorten the payback time and improve operational efficiency, customer and employee satisfaction, and societal impact at the same time.

Invest now, or follow later?

Even where TCO and local energy availability still look unfavourable today, there is a strategic choice. You can invest now to be ready and stay ahead of the competition, or wait and try to follow. TNO’s latest analysis for PBL suggests the economics are turning. On TCO and range alone, battery-electric is the preferred choice for almost every new truck from 2026. The brake is the grid, and securing grid capacity takes years. Mobility also has low priority in the ACM’s framework for allocating new grid capacity. Planning early is itself an advantage.