Norway is running out of cars that eat gasoline to make taxes

In an attempt to recoup lost revenue, officials are stripping electric cars of their special status, sparking heated debate and concern that the country could jeopardize its goal of not selling new combustion-powered cars by 2025. 2017. Now, the center-left coalition government in Norway is considering removing a much wider list of incentives as part of ongoing budget negotiations.

There is a great deal of uncertainty as to which taxes will be reintroduced. But the country’s auto associations and environmental groups believe the flat-rate hybrid plug-in taxes, the second-hand electric vehicle sales tax, are worth more than a “luxury electric vehicle” tax. 600,000 Norwegian Crown ($ 68,650) and annual property revitalization for electric vehicles.

Labor MP Frode Jacobsen will not comment in detail on the ongoing budget debates, but has reaffirmed that the current proposals include raising taxes for some plug-in hybrids. The “luxury electric vehicle” tax will not be included in next year’s budget, he added, though he did not say it is excluded for the next few years.

In another country, it would be surprising for a left-wing government to support such policies. But Lasse Fridstrøm, an economics expert at the research organization at the Oslo Institute of Transport Economics, says that across the political spectrum it makes sense that it is time to tax EVs, which are no longer a novelty. “The new Labor government has just stuck to the proposal made by the former right-wing or Conservative government,” he added. “So, yes, there is consensus. But environmentalists, of course, are not happy. ”

Norwegian environmentalists say they are not against the idea of ​​taxing electric vehicles, while taxes on fossil fuel cars also remain high. But there is concern about the imminent tax coming soon. “This can lead to big setbacks,” Hauge says. “Putting VAT back on cars over 600,000 kroner seems like a strange thing because these are useful cars” in rural areas where people spend more time on the road, and have to drive electric vehicles over long distances, he says.

Berve is also concerned with time. He believes that taxes on the sale of used electric cars would weaken the market before it could be developed, while taxes on hybrids will hurt drivers living in the north of the country. South. The hybrid is in line with the Norwegian consensus that it is a “transition technology” that will eventually hinder full electrification. “However, it is a transitional technology that we believe is still necessary [the EV market is] it is not yet fully mature, ”he added. In this case, electric vehicles still make up only 15 percent of the total vehicle population in Norway, according to the Road Traffic Information Council. It’s a huge number globally, but there’s still a long way to go.

Unni Berge of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, a consumer group representing electric vehicle drivers, says it is not existing EV drivers who will be threatened with the removal of incentives, but people who have not yet entered their level. “We are not fighting for our members, but for new people to become EV drivers,” he says, adding that the group’s main goal was to ensure that VAT and purchase tax exemptions remain in effect.