METHODOLOGY · v 1.0 · NL

How We Score Every Car in the Netherlands

Three independent scoring models, six dimensions each, all maintained in the open. No paid placements.

3 Models· 18 Dimensions· v 1.0· Updated Monthly
TRUST
New-Energy Vehicles
"Is this electric / hybrid car a confident choice — and will it still be in five years?"
Applies to: BEV · PHEV · EREV · HEV · FCEV
PRICE
Combustion Vehicles
"Is this petrol car worth the price you'll pay over the next five years?"
Applies to: Petrol · Diesel (ICE only)
SPARK
Cross-Category Comparison
"For your specific use case, should you go electric or stay with petrol?"
Applies to: All vehicles, side-by-side
Model One
TRUST
Applies to:
New-energy vehicles
BEV · PHEV · EREV
HEV · FCEV
All brands.

Confidence in new-energy ownership.

New-energy vehicles change faster than buyers can keep up. A car launched two years ago may already be obsolete in driver-assist or cabin software; a brand selling well today may struggle for parts five years out. TRUST asks: knowing what we know now, how confidently can you own this car for the next decade?

Six Dimensions

01
Driving Assistance
Compute-platform tier (Orin / Mobileye / Horizon / Qualcomm), ADAS level (L2 / L2+ / urban NOA / highway NOA), and the streets and highways where the system actually works in the Netherlands.
02
In-car Experience
Cockpit chip (8155 / 8295 / Kirin / Horizon), screen specifications, voice-interaction quality, app ecosystem, and how often the manufacturer ships meaningful OTA updates.
03
Battery & Powertrain
Battery architecture (CTP / CTC / blade / Kirin), cell supplier, peak charging speed and 30-80% time, thermal-management approach, warranty terms — the foundation of any new-energy vehicle.
04
Market Availability
NL service-network density and coverage, parts-supply stability, the brand's global scale, and the parent company's financial health — together estimating how confidently you can own this vehicle for 5–10 years in the Netherlands.
05
Owner Experience
NL and broader European owner interviews, global owner sentiment from social platforms and forums, long-term media reviews — separating what manufacturers promise from what owners actually live with.
06
Quality Record
Recall history, batch-defect cases, warranty-claim rates, and publicly documented design flaws. Quantitative where possible, contextual where the data is thin.
Why we don't publish the weights. Each dimension's weight is reviewed quarterly against owner feedback and market changes — publishing a single number would be obsolete the next month. We publish what we measure, and the changelog records every adjustment.
Model Two
PRICE
Applies to:
Combustion vehicles
Petrol · Diesel
ICE only.
All brands.

Honest value on a petrol car.

A combustion car's true cost is rarely on its windscreen sticker. Insurance, fuel, maintenance, and depreciation can outweigh the purchase price over a five-year hold. PRICE turns this scattered information into a single answer: given everything it costs to actually own, is this car fairly priced?

Six Dimensions

01
Drive-away Price vs Class Average
Current NL all-in price (BPM, MRB, VAT, common options) compared to the class median across all sellers — the first sanity check on whether the showroom number is competitive.
02
Residual Value
Resale performance after 3 and 5 years on the NL used market — sourced from AutoTrack, Marktplaats, and trade-in sheets. The hidden half of total cost.
03
Fuel Cost
Real-world fuel economy (not just the label) multiplied by current NL fuel prices and a 13,000 km annual mileage assumption — the single largest variable cost of operation.
04
Insurance Cost
Average WA+/Allrisk premium quoted by NL insurers for a typical 30-year-old driver — a substantial line item locally that varies sharply between models in the same segment.
05
Maintenance Cost
Authorized-dealer service-package pricing plus the projected cost of routine wear items (tyres, brakes, filters) over five years.
06
Class Comparison
Where this model lands against direct competitors at the same price, size, and powertrain class — surfacing both class leaders and overpriced laggards.
Output is not just a score. PRICE produces a five-year total-cost-of-ownership estimate and a short list of class alternatives, so you see the number behind the rating.
Model Three
SPARK
Applies to:
All vehicles
side-by-side
across categories.
All brands.

Electric or petrol — for your situation.

The most common question in the Netherlands today isn't "BMW or Mercedes" — it's "should this next car be electric?" Traditional rating systems can't compare across powertrains. SPARK puts a BYD Seal and a Toyota Camry on the same coordinates and answers, for your specific use, which makes more sense to own.

Six Dimensions

01
Five-Year Total Cost
All-in five-year ownership cost: drive-away price, fuel or electricity, insurance, maintenance, and projected residual loss. The single number that decides most ICE-vs-EV debates.
02
Range Practicality
EV range (or ICE tank distance) measured against your real daily distance, plus NL-specific autumn/winter range derating — battery performance in NL's temperate climate (-5 °C to 25 °C year-round) often differs from the WLTP labels.
03
Refuel & Charge Convenience
NL charging-station density (Fastned, Allego, Vattenfall, Shell Recharge) versus petrol-station density — NL has Europe's densest EV network. Home-charging feasibility for your residence type, plus fast-charging along your routes.
04
Policy Tailwinds
Active NL incentives that change the math — BPM exemptions for EVs, MRB road-tax reductions, "subsidieregeling elektrische personenauto's particulieren" (SEPP), and OEM-specific subsidies. Refreshed monthly.
05
Long-term Ownability
Eight-to-ten-year availability of service, parts, software updates, and battery support in the Netherlands — combining brand market presence with battery-degradation projections from real-world fleet data.
06
Use-case Fit
Your actual driving pattern: short city commute, inter-city motorway runs, weekend trips, family use, or company-lease scenarios. The recommendation flips depending on how you'll really use the car.
SPARK is the only cross-category model. The output is two scores — an EV recommendation and an ICE recommendation — alongside a plain-language verdict telling you which one fits the inputs you provided.
Operating Principles

Open methodology, updated in public.

The point of CarIX is to be a system buyers can verify, not just trust. Here is how we keep the models honest.

01 · Refresh
Updated monthly.

The first business day of every month, every model is rerun with the latest data — financial filings, sales figures, fuel and insurance prices, charging-network changes, owner sentiment.

02 · Weights
Reviewed quarterly with feedback.

Dimension weights are adjusted every quarter based on owner feedback and market shifts. When users tell us "service network matters more than brand prestige," that's reflected in the next version.

03 · Scope
UAE-only — for now.

All v 1.0 scores apply only to the Netherlands market. The same brand performs differently in different countries, so each market gets its own model: SPARK-DE, SPARK-FR, and other markets will follow.

04 · Limits
What we don't pretend to know.

Chinese new-energy brands have only been on NL roads for 18-24 months — TRUST data is still converging. Used-market figures depend on third-party platforms with their own biases. We surface this uncertainty rather than hide it.

05 · No payments
No brand pays to be ranked.

No manufacturer, distributor, or dealer pays CarIX to influence a score. Sponsored content elsewhere on the site is clearly labelled and never affects model output.

06 · Changelog
Every change recorded.

Every weight adjustment, dimension addition, and data-source change is logged below with the reason. The full version history stays on this page, indefinitely.

Model Changelog

v 1.0
2026-04-26 · NL · INITIAL RELEASE
First public release. Three models established:
· TRUST — 6 dimensions for new-energy vehicles
· PRICE — 6 dimensions for combustion vehicles
· SPARK — 6 dimensions for cross-category comparison
Coverage: all brands available in the Netherlands.