The theft of electric cars is soaring and a total of 80 electric vehicles have been stolen so far this year, the car crime watchdog AVC said on Friday. Just 31 were taken in the first three months of last year, the organisation said.

‘With such numbers you don’t talk about an incident  but of a trend which has to be tackled immediately,’ AVC director Titus Visser told the Telegraaf.  Toyota is the most popular among electric car thieves, with 55 of its hybrid cars stolen so far this year. That includes 25 Totota RAV4s, of which only four have been recovered.

‘We remain in the dark as to why Toyota is so prized by car thieves. But as Toyota importer we are investigating how to stop the thefts as quickly as possible,’ said Rens Braat of car sales group Louwman & Parqui.

The market, so far, is miniscule, but the Netherlands is the world’s fifth-largest market for electric cars after China, the US, Japan and Norway, the International Energy Agency reported last summer.

Under the government’s Green Deal programme worked out with car sector organisations, half of new car sales in 2025 should be electric or hybrid. In Norway, such cars already account for 33% of sales.

However, motoring organisation ANWB said last year only around 15% of motorists are considering buying an electric car in the near future.