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Over Half of Norway Car Sales Are Now Electric (reuters.com)
The Norwegian Road Federation (NRF) said on Monday that almost 60 percent of all new cars sold in the country last month were fully electric, "a global record as the country seeks to end fossil-fueled vehicles sales by 2025," reports Reuters. From the report: Exempting battery engines from taxes imposed on diesel and petrol cars has upended Norway's auto market, elevating brands like Tesla and Nissan, with its Leaf model, while hurting sales of Toyota, Daimler and others. In 2018, Norway's fully electric car sales rose to a record 31.2 percent market share from 20.8 percent in 2017, far ahead of any other nation, and buyers had to wait as producers struggled to keep up with demand.
The surge of electric cars to a 58.4 percent market share in March came as Tesla ramped up delivery of its mid-sized Model 3, which retails from 442,000 crowns ($51,400), while Audi began deliveries of its 652,000-crowns e-tron sports utility vehicle. The sales figures consolidate Norway's global lead in electric car sales per capita, part of an attempt by Western Europe's biggest producer of oil and gas to transform to a greener economy.
The surge of electric cars to a 58.4 percent market share in March came as Tesla ramped up delivery of its mid-sized Model 3, which retails from 442,000 crowns ($51,400), while Audi began deliveries of its 652,000-crowns e-tron sports utility vehicle. The sales figures consolidate Norway's global lead in electric car sales per capita, part of an attempt by Western Europe's biggest producer of oil and gas to transform to a greener economy.
Even /. that is tolerant of pot and porn is hostile and call the CEO a pot smoking fraud. Well orchestrated campaign is on to oust the star CEO to hobble its ability to raise capital.
Structure the tax break to punish the ones that take early lead and risk. Tax break for Tesla and GM EVs are being phased out while the imports enjoy full benefit.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
The EV's are no longer EXEMPT from taxes. Gotta pay for all the infrastructure somehow. Eliminate gas vehicles and gas taxes and the money will HAVE to come from somewhere else... Just saying...
Oh and ask the Norwegians what the battery life is in those vehicles with the harsh winters. I live in Wisconsin and our winters make batteries have short lives. I have to buy batteries for vehicles every 3 years. EV's are not a good solution for areas with harsh winter cold temperatures - period! People with their Toyota Prius's are using more gas in them as the batteries don't run as long in the harsh winters - I know 3 people with them. I went kind of in the middle and got a Smart car. The only problem with them is they don't do well on snow and ice covered roads. They are small and lightweight. But I get 50 MPG with it and an 8 gallon gas tank actually gives me a decent driving range.
The Truth is a Virus!!!
- Norway is the size of California
- Norway artifically makes ICE cars more expensive and subsidizes EVs with oil money yet people still have trouble finding chargers. They are non-existant in the mountains.
- Norway never goes below -3C
- All of Norway is 1619 km long. We have a completely ice road in Canada that is 750km by comparison.
Norway is basically the perfect place for these cars.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Very little of this is significant and barely even true. I live there. Most Norwegian live in areas where is just goes under freezing for 3-4 months at most, heavy snow is uncommon, cleared very effectively and few people commute very far at all.
It's all relative though. If I have one day where it's still freezing by noon I consider that pretty darn cold nowadays. What you consider not so bad a winter, many people on here would consider pretty severe. I've lived in 3 countries and never seen more than 7cm of snow fall, I'm sure 7cm is nothing to you though . I've seen how 3 inches can cause havoc on a city not prepared for snow. Heck, I've driven in my car behind a dump truck that had two men standing in the back shoveling sand on to the road as it slowly rolled forwards- that's the best remedy the city I lived in had to deal with the snow (that was in the mid-South, US). They didn't even have salt. "Heavy Snow is uncommon" vs "Heavy Snow would bring the city to a complete grinding halt."
What people were worried about is that sub-freezing temps would make the electric car not work. Norway has definitely proven this wrong.
There are few heavily populated places on earth that have REALLY severe weather- there's a reason most Norwegians live in the less severe parts of the country, I'm sure. Nonetheless, electric cars have proven they can do well in Norway, they've proven they can do well in almost any HEAVILY-POPULATED area. Maybe they won't do as well North of Trondheim (maybe they would), but people in those conditions represent a very small percent of the world's population.
They are a success because of tax. Petrol cars have a 100% tax, electric have zero, so a Telsa cost a similar amount to a medium sized car, a Leaf was cheaper than a well equipped hatchback. Plus they travel free on the toll roads and Norwegians have a lot of money they need to try to find a way of spending. In fact it was so successful the government had significant issues with the hole in the budget caused by the lack of income from reduced taxable car sales.
Aye, and that's a good model for the rest of us to follow.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Norway is a massive oil exporter. Every drop of oil they don't burn in cars they export as oil instead. Norway moving to electric cars does nothing at all to reduce the overall problem because they just export the difference.
The demand in oil won't go up over-seas because Norway is exporting a larger % of what they earn. In fact as electric cars are beginning to take a larger share of the market in many places, and power stations switch from using oil, the demand for oil will decrease. It won't go away completely any time soon- but demand for oil is going to drop- and production of oil will drop in many places too- to keep the prices from free falling.
Oil is slowly fading away.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
They have this problem as well with fossil fueled cars, that is why many cars in colder climates (e.g. Scandiavian countries, Canada) are equipped with a block heater.
Finally - I'm amazed that it took someone this long to point out the truth. We have petrophiles complaining about cold batteries, and ignoring that some folks start fires under their oil sump to get their vehicles warm enough to start.
In Alaska cities, parking meters have electrical outlets to plug your car into to keep it warm.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
"Actually the other classic anti-EV argument, the off-grid remote cabin with no possibility of solar or wind power, is actually a thing in Norway too."
They get 95% of their power from hydro and those all in the sticks as well.