The Burrow
Jul 10, 2025
Electric vehicles (EVs) offer an emissions-free form of travel, and numerous governments have set dates to transition to an emission-free fleet, banning the sale of new combustion engine vehicles.
But to make EVs useful and compelling choices for households, there needs to be infrastructure and support in place.
As experts in car insurance comparison, we dove into the data to find out which cities in the world are the most EV-friendly, based on the number of chargers, cost of electricity, incentives for EV owners, and fleet size. Using this data, we created a ranking system to score the cities out of 10.
Out of 106 cities across the world, here is what we found.
The top three scores in our list of rankings all went to Dutch cities: The Hague (scoring 5.14/10), Rotterdam (5.10), and Amsterdam (5.00). These cities had the highest number of charging stations per capita, which had the highest weight in the ranking system. The Hague had 744.92 chargers per 100,000 people, which helped it take the top spot.
Dutch cities had a good number of incentives too. If the average cost of electricity in the Netherlands was cheaper, these cities would have scored even higher out of 10.
Looking beyond the Netherlands, Paris had the next highest score of 4.86 out of 10, followed closely by Oslo at 4.71 and Montreal at 4.31 (another Dutch city, Utrecht, managed to squeeze in just above Montreal with a score of 4.45).
Paris had a very low number of public charging stations per capita, but some of the highest EV sales and number of EVs by city population, and full marks for incentives, including an income-based subsidy at the national level and a local Administrative Region bonus plus tax benefits and tax credits for installing home chargers for EVs.
Norway’s capital of Oslo also did well, having full marks for incentives, low electricity costs, and a fairly high number of EVs by city population. Norway has been a big proponent of EVs, and has taken several steps to encourage EV adoption to the point that almost all new cars sold are EVs, almost achieving its goal of making all new sales EVs by 2025.1
Three of the top 10 cities in the rankings were in Norway – Oslo (4.71), Trondheim (3.95) and Bergen (3.94). The Norwegian cities were let down by a comparatively lower number of charging stations per capita, and if they had more, they would likely overtake the Dutch cities for the top spot.
The first non-European city in the rankings was Montreal in Canada, with a score of 4.31. Canada had the lowest average national electricity cost, which was weighted highly in the rankings, as well as a high number of EVs on the road and sales of EVs by the city population.
| Ranking | City | Chargers per capita | EV sales by city population | # of EVs by city population | National average electricity cost (USD/kWh) | Incentives score | INDEX SCORE |
| 1 | The Hague (Netherlands) | 744.92 | 7,742.28 | 26,526.39 | 0.27 | 2 | 5.14 |
| 2 | Rotterdam (Netherlands) | 467.13 | 9,764.93 | 33,456.32 | 0.27 | 3 | 5.10 |
| 3 | Amsterdam (Netherlands) | 664.22 | 12,106.37 | 41,478.52 | 0.27 | 2 | 5.00 |
| 4 | Paris (France) | 8.97 | 77,215.06 | 142,820.30 | 0.32 | 3 | 4.86 |
| 5 | Oslo (Norway) | 120.00 | 11,905.86 | 78,956.70 | 0.17 | 3 | 4.71 |
| 6 | Utrecht (Netherlands) | 606.05 | 4,742.56 | 16,248.82 | 0.27 | 2 | 4.45 |
| 7 | Montreal (Canada) | 55.28 | 28,818.20 | 124,384.59 | 0.13 | 2 | 4.31 |
| 8 | Trondheim (Norway) | 77.47 | 3,020.37 | 20,030.36 | 0.17 | 3 | 3.95 |
| 9 | Bergen (Norway) | 52.43 | 4,384.33 | 29,075.80 | 0.17 | 3 | 3.94 |
| 10 | Lisbon (Portugal) | 163.76 | 3,430.16 | 10,448.34 | 0.23 | 3 | 3.86 |
| 11 | New York (USA) | 25.81 | 39,670.98 | 95,443.71 | 0.18 | 2 | 3.84 |
| 12 | Helsinki (Finland) Stavanger (Norway) | 7.89 | 5,306.00 | 53,089.17 | 0.19 | 3 | 3.83 |
| 55.91 | 2,496.33 | 16,555.04 | 0.17 | 3 | |||
| 13 | Barcelona (Spain) | 141.65 | 3,932.43 | 15,634.43 | 0.23 | 3 | 3.81 |
| 14 | Madrid (Spain) | 57.19 | 7,823.33 | 31,103.70 | 0.23 | 3 | 3.65 |
| 15 | Porto (Portugal) | 117.77 | 1,653.68 | 5037.16 | 0.23 | 3 | 3.60 |
| 16 | Valencia (Spain) | 97.27 | 1,974.56 | 7,850.38 | 0.23 | 3 | 3.55 |
| 17 | Vancouver (Canada) Los Angeles (USA) | 155.68 | 4,529.03 | 19,548.13 | 0.13 | 2 | 3.53 |
| 126.65 | 18,849.24 | 45,349.06 | 0.18 | 2 | |||
| 18 | Calgary (Canada) | 445.49 | 898.50 | 3,878.12 | 0.13 | 1 | 3.52 |
| 19 | Seville (Spain) | 84.47 | 1,705.36 | 6,780.12 | 0.23 | 3 | 3.48 |
| 20 | Seattle (USA) | 239.81 | 3,822.64 | 9,196.82 | 0.18 | 2 | 3.47 |
At the other end of the scale, the lowest-scoring cities on the list were all from Switzerland. Zurich had the lowest score of 0.42, followed by Lucerne at 0.50 and Geneva at 0.55.
The Swiss cities were held back by several factors. Switzerland had the highest average electricity cost at 40 US cents per kWh, the lowest score for incentives, and a low number of EV sales by city population. The number of charging stations per capita in Zurich, Lucerne and Geneva wasn’t the lowest, but neither was it the highest.
Right behind Switzerland at the bottom of the rankings were the German cities of Cologne (0.82), Frankfurt (0.86) and Munich (0.90). Similar to the Swiss cities, these German cities scored poorly for incentives and had some of the highest average electricity costs. Their higher number of EV sales by population and total number of EVs helped them score enough to stay out of the bottom three.
In terms of EV-friendliness, it isn’t looking good for Australia. While electric cars have gradually made their way into the Australian market, they haven’t achieved mainstream appeal, and most jurisdictions have little in the way of incentives for EV owners.
Previously, states like Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia had rebates and subsidies for the purchase of an EV, but those have since ended, with EV owners getting at least one incentive: discounts on car registration fees every year.
The highest performing Australian city was Canberra, ranked 33rd with a score of 2.94. There were few EV chargers per capita, a low number of EV sales and total number of EVs by city population, and a national electricity average that’s more expensive than the global average. Canberra’s one redeeming quality is that it has full marks for incentives, as Australia’s capital has been leading the way in offering benefits to encourage motorists to transition to EVs.
While some cities are more EV-friendly than others, the cost of car insurance for electric cars could be a barrier.
Across the world, from the USA to Europe, and here in Australia, the cost of car insurance for EVs is typically more expensive than that of regular cars, and adds another barrier for those wanting to transition to electric transport.2,3
Executive General Manager of General Insurance, Adrian Taylor, notes this makes comparing insurance plans even more important.
“Even if you live in a city that’s really friendly for EVs, every dollar counts, so it’s important to compare available plans. You don’t want to miss out on potential savings,” Mr Taylor said.
“It only takes a short time to compare policies by price, coverage, exclusions and other benefits. You could potentially find a better deal that costs less or offers more for an equivalent price. Ensure you read through the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Target Market Determination (TMD) for details on coverage before you make a purchase.”
Five data points were used to create a score out of ten, with some metrics having a higher weighting than others.
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