Electric vehicles (EVs) are widely considered central to the transition toward sustainable mobility, yet passenger EV adoption in the Netherlands is progressing more slowly than anticipated. This raises the question of whether the current institutional environment effectively supports large-scale EV uptake. Barriers to adoption are often described as technological, financial, or infrastructural, but they are ultimately rooted in institutions, which are the formal rules, policy implementation, and behavioural norms that govern mobility.

This thesis applies Institutional Network Analysis (INA) to systematically examine the institutional environment governing passenger EV adoption in the Netherlands. The research introduces policy intent as a third analytical category alongside institutions-in-form and institutions-in-use, extending the conventional INA scope. Institutional statements were extracted from legal documents, policy documents, and research reports, coded using the Institutional Grammar 2.0, and visualised through Institutional Network Diagrams. Discrepancies between statement types were then identified and analysed.

The analysis reveals institutional discrepancies related to public charging costs and car taxation. Regarding charging costs, ad hoc charging remains underused due to limited user awareness, and price transparency obligations under EU law are frequently not met in practice. Regarding car taxation, the analysis uncovers a structural tension between stimulating EV adoption and maintaining stable tax revenue, as well as a lack of clear rules to guide policy implementation. These discrepancies create uncertainty for end users and are likely to constrain EV uptake in the coming five years.

The study concludes that limited EV adoption in the Netherlands can be partly explained by discrepancies between policy objectives, formal rules, and practical outcomes. To address this, the thesis proposes several policy recommendations targeting awareness, monitoring, enforcement, and the development of more equitable and self-sustaining incentive structures.