Amsterdam’s zero-emission zone has been in force since 1 January 2025, and the warning period is over.
Cameras now read plates and issue real fines: €130 for a non-compliant van and €320 for a lorry, per entry.
The first thing to establish is whether it applies to you at all, because most people who worry about it are not affected.
The zone restricts vans and lorries - commercial vehicles - along with newly registered scooters, and an ordinary private car is governed by a separate and much older set of rules.
If you drive a van for work, deliver anything, run a trade, or operate a fleet that touches the centre, read on.
If you are simply moving here with a family car, the guide to Amsterdam is the more useful page.
Where The Zone Is And What It Restricts
The emission-free zone sits inside the S100 ring road, which wraps the historic centre.
Inside it, vans and lorries must be battery-electric or hydrogen-powered unless they qualify for a transition period.
A second, older restriction covers the much larger area inside the A10 ring: diesel cars and diesel vans must meet emission class 4 or better to enter, and diesel lorries between the A10 and the S100 need class 6.
Petrol cars, hybrids and electric cars are unaffected by either zone.
Scooters registered from 1 January 2025 onwards have to be emission-free to use the zone, while older ones keep their access.
Amsterdam also scrapped its separate low-emission zone for taxis, so a taxi now follows the same rules as any other passenger car - worth knowing if you are comparing Amsterdam taxi services.
Anyone weighing up owning a car in the Netherlands should note that a private petrol or electric car faces no zero-emission restriction anywhere in the city.
The Transition Timetable For Existing Vans And Lorries
Vehicles registered before 1 January 2025 were not banned overnight, and what you get depends entirely on the Euro class on the registration document.
Euro 5 vans keep access until 31 December 2026.
Euro 6 vans registered before the cutoff hold on for a further year, to the end of 2027.
Certain Euro 6 lorries have the longest run, to 2030, after which every commercial vehicle inside the S100 must produce zero tailpipe emissions.
Euro 4 and below have no access at all and have not had since the zone opened.
Emission class is not something to estimate from the model year, because it depends on the exact registration date and engine variant.
Amsterdam runs a plate-lookup tool that returns a yes or no for a specific vehicle, and running every plate in a fleet through it takes an afternoon and settles the question.
A limited number of day exemptions per vehicle can be applied for through the national zero-emission portal, intended for the occasional unavoidable trip rather than as a working arrangement.
Longer exemptions exist for specialist vehicles with no electric equivalent on the market.
What Money Is Available
Amsterdam extended its scrapping subsidy through the end of 2026, and the amounts are fixed rather than negotiable.
Scrapping a delivery vehicle of emission class 4 or lower brings €1,500, rising to €2,250 for Stadspas holders, and the vehicle has to go to an RDW-recognised scrapyard.
Eligibility has conditions that catch people out: your business must be registered in Amsterdam and you must have owned the vehicle continuously for at least six months.
Buying a replacement electric van attracts a further city contribution of €3,000 for operators moving into the zone, on top of whatever national purchase scheme is running that year.
National purchase subsidies for electric commercial vehicles change name, amount and budget almost every year and run out mid-year when they are popular.
Check what is open before you order rather than after, because the schemes are capped and close without notice once the budget is gone.
How Amsterdam Fits Into The Dutch Rollout
At least fifteen municipalities opened zero-emission zones on the same day, among them Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, Eindhoven, Maastricht, Nijmegen, Tilburg, Leiden and Delft, with the total expected to reach twenty-nine by 2030.
The Dutch scheme is the first nationwide programme anywhere aimed specifically at goods vehicles.
Each city draws its own boundary, but the vehicle standards are set nationally and identical everywhere.
A van that qualifies in Amsterdam qualifies in Rotterdam and Utrecht too, which is the single most useful thing for anyone running multi-city routes.
The rollout was contested, with the incoming national coalition pushing for a delay and the four largest cities refusing.
The compromise let municipalities open on schedule in exchange for an initial six months of warnings instead of penalties, which is the period that has now expired.
For the wider picture on what else has shifted, see Dutch laws changing in 2026.
What To Do This Month
Run every plate through the city’s lookup tool and write the expiry date next to each vehicle, because the answer differs van by van even within one fleet.
The date on the worst vehicle is your real deadline.
Sort charging before you sort vehicles.
A depot or yard with its own chargers is the reliable arrangement, and if you have no private parking the public network and the shared commercial hubs are the fallback - but both need checking for capacity before you commit to an electric fleet.
Route planning is the quiet cost.
Zone boundaries are not obvious from a normal satnav, so either use planning software that knows where the S100 line runs or mark it on a map for every driver.
If the business is new and you are still setting up here, the moving to the Netherlands checklist covers the rest of the paperwork.
