The ruling right-wing VVD is looking into the option of introducing some form of road pricing in the Netherlands, and could include the option in its manifesto for the 2021 general election, parliamentary party leader Klaas Dijkhof has said.

Road pricing would be a new way of taxing motoring, given so many people are switching to electric-powered cars, Dijkhof told podcast Betrouwbare Bronnen. At the moment, ‘the more you drive the more you pay,’ Dijkhof said.

‘If you can’t raise taxes via the petrol pump, we need to think how we can do it,’ he told the programme. ‘You need to find a way to make sure electric car owners pay their fair share.’

Earlier this week, road pricing was part of a package of measures to cut pollution and car usage proposed by an alliance of motoring and public transport organisations.

‘We are aiming for 2024 as the start of a road pricing scheme which will cover everyone, not just in rush hour,’ Steven van Eijck, chairman of the Rai motoring organisation, told the Telegraaf.

In January, the Volkskrant published a survey showing there is growing support in the Netherlands for some form of road pricing, through which motorists pay a tax on every kilometre they drive.

In 2009 the then transport minister Camiel Eurlings dropped plans to introduce road pricing from 2011 because it would be too complex and would cost too much to run.