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That’s no surprise, since Norwegian government heavily penalizes ICE vehicles, and advantages the electric cars. No VAT, no CO2 tax, and lots of other incentive
by xyzzyz 7y ago
That’s no surprise, since Norwegian government heavily penalizes ICE vehicles, and advantages the electric cars. No VAT, no CO2 tax, and lots of other incentives are involved.
If your goal is to upgrade your country’s vehicle fleet to electric, then Norway is a good example that with enough government spending it can happen. Don’t mistake it for “normal people jumping onboard electric train”, though, they are jumping onboard tax incentives train.
- 4gotunameagain 7y agoIt's a car, and an expensive one. Very few people would base their decision only on the tax incentives.
- dogma1138 7y agoI don’t think you realize how much cars cost in Norway the country has an effective tax rate on cars that is over 100%. A new Ford Focus with all taxes and fees will cost you around $50,000, the base model without fees alone starts at around $35,000 (320,000 NOK). That’s a $12-13K car in the US, a Tesla on the otherhand might cost you even lower than the US sticker price under some circumstances, especially on the officially refurbished ones. Add other benefits on top of that and the fact that petrol in Norway costs $7 per gallon, money is the pretty much the only reason why people buy Tesla’s and other EVs at such high rates in Norway.
- kungtotte 7y agoTo contrast this with Sweden, another heavily taxed country, we bought a new Mazda 6 Wagon in 2016 and it cost us 313000 SEK (~289000 NOK), fully loaded with all the trimmings and an extra set of winter tyres on rims to boot. Car prices in Norway are crazy high.
- oldandboring 7y agoThe 2018 Focus had a starting MSRP around $17.5k. I'm not really sure what they actually listed for at dealerships and I'm having a hard time finding info on the 2019 Focus being sold in the US. But, yeah obviously this is a much less expensive car in the US. $50k for a compact is ridiculous.
- mrweasel 7y agoThe Focus isn’t considered a compact car in countries like Denmark, where it’s priced similarly to Norway. The Focus is a midsize car.
- ddalex 7y agoThe Norway new car tax is above 100% for ICEs. So you can either buy a 30k ICE or 60k Tesla (which is taxed 0%), and get a lot more value for your money - in addition to that you have free parking in the cities too for electrics.
- alkonaut 7y agoIn Norway every single person buying a new car makes the decision based on tax incentives to a large extent.
- elygre 7y agoAs a (fellow?) Norwegian, I beg to differ. Some of us thinks electric cars are both great cars and environmentally friendly, and make buying decisions based on those two.
- alkonaut 7y agoAll I’m saying is that no Norwegian (or anyone else) ignores price in a purchase decision, and the one time fees for cars in Norway are so large that no one can ignore them. Those that are inclined to purchase a hybrid or EV isn’t exactly going to be discouraged by the tax/fee rebates.
- cj 7y agoAlso, price of gas is 2.5x higher in Norway than somewhere like the USA. If you're in the USA and fill your tank once a week, you probably spend ~$2000/yr in gas. And that's how much you'd save in gas if you went electric. In areas with higher fuel prices, the incentive is proportionally larger. (That's ignoring the cost of paying your electric bill, not sure if that changes the math much..)
- npo9 7y agoIt depends on what price you pay for Electricity, but paying for the electricity is more than half as cheap as paying for gas. Plus in the US there are so many free chargers, I just charge my car at the office.
- jfk13 7y agoI have a suspicion that as electric cars become more common, free chargers will become less so. Providing free chargers (i.e. subsidizing people's driving expenses) may be great PR for businesses, municipalities, etc., as long as there are relatively few people using them, but will not be sustainable as demand increases. And as more people shift from ICE-powered vehicles to electric ones, it seems likely that some of the taxes currently imposed on gasoline may end up applying to electric charging as well, as governments will need to maintain the revenue somehow.
- ZeroGravitas 7y agoOne counterbalancing force is renewables and using cars as part of demand response. If solar energy that would otherwise go to waste can be stored in cars, then that reduces the chance the car will need charged at another time and save the utility money. I can imagine plugs that you connect to for free when parked, that only give you as much power as they want but that will also let you buy express power when absolutely required via an app.
- greglindahl 7y agoPlenty of places already charge an equivalent to gas taxes for electric vehicles. In my US state, it's paid with your yearly registration. My city initially gave away free charging to lower air pollution, which wasn't on your list of reasons. 6 years after that start, they've started charging.
- cloudwalking 7y agoModel 3 appears to be the #6 best selling car in USA last quarter* and I don't believe there is much of any USA tax incentive anymore. https://cleantechnica.com/2019/10/06/tesla-model-3-6th-best-selling-car-in-usa-in-3rd-quarter/ https://cleantechnica.com/2019/10/06/tesla-model-3-6th-best-...
- brians 7y ago$1850 federal tax incentive, $1500 in my state. It doesn’t close the cost gap with ICE, but it sure is nice.
- new_realist 7y agoThat's sedans (a small and shrinking portion of the auto market), not vehicles. If you count passenger vehicles, the Model 3 is #27 YTD.
- Robotbeat 7y agoIt's cars, not sedans. Trucks have taken over US passenger vehicles. With consequence for pedestrian safety, parking spaces, space between vehicles on the road, and fuel consumption.
- jansan 7y agoKeep in mind that the best selling passenger vehicles are not called "car" in the US statistics, but "light trucks". The number of light trucks sold in September 2019 is almost three times the number of "passenger cars". https://www.marklines.com/en/statistics/flash_sales/salesfig_usa_2019 https://www.marklines.com/en/statistics/flash_sales/salesfig...
- goshx 7y agoTesla is heading that direction too with Model Y coming out next year and the truck they are expected to announce in November. This will be interesting to watch.
- simonebrunozzi 7y ago
- ZeroGravitas 7y agoHow much do they offer? I've seen estimates that over its lifetime an EV purchased in America saves society about $20,000. Though at least one component of that will be higher in Norway as their grid is so clean that it'll be even better on health impacts. I'm not sure that a society continuously voting for sane, reality-based economic policies over a few decades is different from "normal people jumping on board the electric train" if that's where they end up. Who else should they "blame" for this sensible and rational policy if not themselves?
- oska 7y agoThe Norwegian government has support for its EV policies from the 'normal people' who voted it in. Every poll I've seen across a range of countries shows strong interest in and support for the transtion to EVs. Sometimes the national governments ignore this support (e.g. in my own country of Australia) but I'm not aware of any country where the government is ahead of interest and support from 'normal people', including Norway.