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Norway's EV incentives will be withdrawn, or reconsidered, in about 18 months?

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Canuck

Well-Known Member
Nov 30, 2013
6,125
5,781
South Surrey, BC
"... says the government, the Norwegian love affair with electric cars may end sooner than expected. Incentives will be withdrawn, or reconsidered, when 50,000 zero emission cars have been registered or come 2018, whichever is the earliest. At the current rate of sales, the 50,000 figure could be reached within 18 months."

Norway has fallen in love with electric cars – but the affair is coming to an end | Environment | theguardian.com

The Guardian article is quite good and quite accurate.

However, there's not really any political signs that anything will change dramatically after 50 000 cars are reached. All political parties are in favour of incentives for electric cars. Maybe EVs will have to start pay VAT on new cars after 50 000. No big deal, as most EVs become ever cheaper.

Air quality in Oslo and Bergen is dangerous every winter due to diesel particles and nitrogendioxide emissions from diesel cars. Diesel cars emits much more pollutants than legal in sub-zero winter conditions. A strong incentive to keep the EVs coming.

Tesla became the most sold cars for two months in 2013. Rumours have it that Tesla will sell even better in 2014. The law of "jante", or envy in plain English, is very strong in Scandinavia. Some critics say Tesla is a heavily subsidized luxury car, although it's merely free of any taxes. (If one out of ten people walking down a street is NOT robbed, that doesn't mean that the tenth person has been subsidized.)

Another threat may be the lack of free space in the bus lanes. The sheer number of EVs in the bus lanes on E18 from Asker to Oslo may lead to restrictions limiting the use of bus lanes on that important road. An EV can use 45 minutes less than a fossil car in the morning rush hour from Asker to Oslo. If EVs can't drive in that particular bus lane anymore, then lots of people will sell their EVs.

I notice deep hostility against Teslas from many environmentalist types on social media, ie hardcore commuter-cyclist proponents and public transport proponents.
 
Rub it in, why don't you.

OK, I'll try rub it in a bit more: We also have free road tolls for EVs (saving me 6.50 USD every day on my commute to work), free parking on county operated parking spots, free domestic ferries, free electricity on county slow chargers...

Oh you mean our politicians? Only one party, the far right progress party, didn't join the bipartisan EV settlement in parliament in 2012 to keep the incentives until 2017/50000EVs. Why? The progress party demanded that the EV incentives were kept until at least 2020. Their party leader is now the minister of finance in our coalition government. Click the link below to see how she drove to the progress party convention in 2012:

http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/norsk-politikk/artikkel.php?artid=10073180

It's depressing if you think of it, though. All these incentives, and still only 10% of new cars are EVs.