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Norway Says Half of New Cars Now Electric Or Hybrid (phys.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the go-big-or-go-home dept.

AmiMoJo quotes a report from Phys.Org: Norway, which already boasts the world's highest number of electric cars per capita, said Monday that electric or hybrid cars represented half of new registrations in the country so far this year. Sales of electric cars accounted for 17.6 percent of new vehicle registrations in January and hybrid cars accounted for 33.8 percent, for a combined 51.4 percent, according to figures from the Road Traffic Information Council (OVF). In February, those proportions fell slightly but remained high at 15.8 percent and 32 percent, respectively. While cars with combustion engines are heavily taxed, electric vehicles are exempt from almost all taxes. Their owners also benefit from numerous advantages such as free access to toll roads, ferries and parking at public car parks, as well as the possibility of driving in bus lanes.

7 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. cars bad, buses good. by Noah+Haders · · Score: 3, Insightful

    i hate when cars are in bus-only lanes. The purpose of the lanes is to allow buses to bypass traffic. it doesn't help when its' so clogged by cars that the lane moves at the same speed as the general purpose lane. thanks a lot, cars!

    1. Re:cars bad, buses good. by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 2, Insightful

      i hate when cars are in bus-only lanes. The purpose of the lanes is to allow buses to bypass traffic. it doesn't help when its' so clogged by cars that the lane moves at the same speed as the general purpose lane. thanks a lot, cars!

      The railway line through Silicon Valley was originally used to carry canned fruit to the port of San Francisco. Now it's used by commuters. It's okay for transport infrastructure to be used for different purposes when the circumstances change.

      --
      Drill baby drill - on Mars
  2. I will not buy an electri car until by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    they can go the same distance as my current gas-powered Honda Accord, which is just under 500 miles tank. Until then, it's not worth it.

  3. Re:Tax Breaks for the Wealthy by OrangeTide · · Score: 1, Insightful

    That they create at initial manufacture, and create again when the materials are reclaimed.

    The usual sort of paper-mill like pollution at the factory, NaHS (Sodium hydrosulfide) being the obvious one used in recycling a battery for its metals (cobalt especially).

    But you're damned no matter what you do, even if you walk to work calories you took in order to have energy to walk has some environmental cost. It's a matter of degrees. Riding a solid rocket engine to work would be one of the least environmentally friendly thing you could do, taking a bicycle might be the most friendly often not practical. A hydrogen fuel cell, while is not very energy efficient, is theoretically cleaner than a Li-Ion / Li-FE in terms of production. (a fuel cell is good for about 5,000 hours of operation, similar to a Tesla battery pack).

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    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  4. Re:Tax Breaks for the Wealthy by OrangeTide · · Score: 3, Insightful

    People driving beaters in my home town don't have $11k, nor the credit to finance such a purchase. They buy cars for under $2k and drive them for 10-15 years.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  5. "I won't buy an automobile until it can eat hay by Brannon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    and be bred to create more automobiles." - random moron in 1910.

  6. Re:Tax Breaks for the Wealthy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You could try to move even further from work. That way you can make a 400 or 500 Km daily commute and reverse common sense even more.