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Car News from Netherlands

A country that stopped building cars in volume in 2024, still hand-builds them in single figures, and is the registered home of one of the largest carmakers in the world.

1 article · 2 brands

This page collects news about the Dutch car industry: the companies based in the Netherlands, the plants, and the policy that shapes what is sold there. The industrial story of the last few years is a subtraction. VDL Nedcar in Born, which had capacity for roughly 240,000 cars a year and had assembled other companies’ models since the 1960s, built its last MINI in February 2024 when BMW’s contract ran out and was not replaced. Around 2,000 of its 2,450 jobs went with it, and the Dutch Ministry of Defence has since taken part of the site for military production. The country now has no volume car plant.

What is left builds cars in single and double figures. Spyker, based in Lijnden, restarted in August 2026 with a run of 25 cars after two bankruptcies, and Donkervoort in Lelystad has made lightweight two-seaters since 1978. Both make their own aluminium bodies. Neither has anything in common with the assembly work that used to happen at Born, which is the more usual shape of car manufacturing in a small European country.

The Netherlands is also, on paper, the corporate home of a very large carmaker: Stellantis N.V. is incorporated there with a registered office in Hoofddorp, a structure inherited from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. Its factories and its decisions sit elsewhere. On the demand side the country runs well ahead of the European average on electric-car adoption and charging density, which is what makes it worth watching as a market even without a plant in it.

Brands

Spyker
Netherlands
Stellantis
Netherlands

Explainers

Joint-venture car brands in China
Joint-venture car brands in China

The Volkswagens sold in China are built by two companies, and one of them is Chinese. That arrangement started in 1983 as a condition of entry, and it has since produced badges that exist nowhere else: Jetta, Wuling, and AUDI in block capitals with no rings. Who holds which half, which brands the ventures invented for themselves, and which of the old partnerships have quietly ended.
Europe's Car Brands: The Ownership Structure
Europe's Car Brands: The Ownership Structure

Most European badges trace back to about five mega-groups - Volkswagen, Stellantis, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Renault. But several beloved European brands are now owned abroad, in China, India and the UAE, and a few Chinese and joint-venture names now sell under European flags. Here is who owns what in 2026.
America's Car Brands: Explained
America's Car Brands: Explained

America's car industry comes down to a few big names, and not all of the 'Big Three' are American-owned. Here is who owns what: GM, Ford, the Europe-based Stellantis behind Jeep and Ram, Tesla and the EV newcomers, and the familiar names that are now owned abroad.
Frequently asked questions
Are cars still built in the Netherlands?
Not in volume. VDL Nedcar in Born, the country's only large car plant, built its last MINI in February 2024 after BMW declined to renew its contract assembly deal, and part of the site has since been turned over to defence manufacturing. What remains is small-series work: Spyker in Lijnden and Donkervoort in Lelystad, both measured in dozens of cars rather than thousands. DAF in Eindhoven builds trucks, not cars.
Which car brands are Dutch?
Spyker, revived in 1999 and named after a coachbuilder that traded from 1880 to 1926, and Donkervoort, founded in 1978 and building lightweight two-seaters. Both are hand-build operations. DAF built passenger cars with its Variomatic belt transmission until Volvo took that business over in the 1970s, and today makes only trucks.
Why is Stellantis a Dutch company?
Stellantis N.V. is incorporated in the Netherlands with its registered office in Hoofddorp, a structure carried over from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., which was Dutch-incorporated before the 2021 merger with PSA. Its operational centres are in Italy, France and the United States, so the Dutch registration is a corporate fact rather than an industrial one.
Was VDL Nedcar an assembler for other brands?
Yes, that was its whole business. The Born plant grew out of DAF's car division, built Volvo 300 and 400-series models, then Mitsubishi Carismas and Colts, and from 2012 assembled MINI hatchbacks, Countrymans, Cabrios and the BMW X1 under contract. It had capacity for about 240,000 cars a year and never sold a car under its own name.

News about Netherlands

Spyker returns with 25 cars and a new co-owner
Spyker returns with 25 cars and a new co-owner

Spyker showed the C8 Preliator XXV at Monterey Car Week in August 2026, five years after the company was declared bankrupt. It is a 25-car run at about 1.5 million euros each, using an Audi-derived 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 with 800 PS and a six-speed manual. Behind it is a settlement that returned the brand to Victor Muller in October 2025 and a June 2026 stake sale to the Ukrainian fintech founder Volodymyr Nosov.
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