Norwegians are strongly committed to electric vehicles as a way to reduce CO emissionstwo, an important fact for a country that has the quality of life as its strong point, with most of the perks in charge of the sale of the crude oil that they extract in the North Sea through a state company. Thanks to a generous system of incentives (starting with VAT exemption), associated with toll and parking advantages, many customers quickly adhered to this cleaner way of getting around. But now that they have reached a circulating fleet where one in five vehicles are electric, the situation is about to change. And it must be taken into account that, for 20% of battery-powered models to be in circulation today, it was necessary to market models with this technology well above that bar, since only in 2021, around 65% of cars new ones sold were powered exclusively by battery.
For the Norwegian legislator, generous subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles made a lot of sense in the early days of this technology, when battery-powered cars were substantially more expensive than their gasoline and diesel rivals. Over the years, batteries became more efficient and at the same time cheaper, making vehicles more affordable. On the other hand, the fact that more and more manufacturers began to appear on the market offering their trams helped materialize the price drop, with advantages for the driver.
With electric cars starting to become competitive against rivals with combustion engines, not in the segments A (500e), B (e-208) and C (ID.3), but in the upper segments D (Model 3) and E (Model S), Norway announced that It intends to begin to withdraw, little by little, financial aid to those who opt for an electric model. This is because if the percentage of vehicles rose from 10% to 20% in just three years, market specialists expect it to exceed 30% within two more years.
Until now, trams registered in Norway were not subject to the 25% VAT that other products are exposed to, starting with combustion vehicles. This is one of the advantages that the Government is trying to eliminate, and a plan in which the tax varies according to the price of the vehicle is currently on the table. However, the remaining advantages are maintained, from the absence of taxes related to imports to specific taxes for circulation, in addition to assuming only 50% of the costs related to parking and tolls.
Having already announced that it will ban the sale of combustion engine vehicles from 2025 in order to achieve the desired reduction in greenhouse gases, Norway is, as of 2020, the only country in which vehicle sales 100 Electric % outperform combustion engines And if we remember that in 2011 the sale of electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars represented barely 5% of the new car market, to exceed 80% in 2020, it is easy to get an idea of the remarkable evolution. Even more curious is the fact that Norway has completely dismantled the theory that “if there are many electric vehicles, countries will not have enough energy for everyone”. According to those responsible for the country, there are no power outages with more than 65% of electric vehicles among the new cars sold and it will continue without limitations when, by the end of 2023, 80% of the total electric models are reached. sales volume. This despite the fact that Norway continues to strengthen its network of charging stations, both public and private.
Source: Observadora
