Electric cars grab almost half of sales in Norway

As a Norwegian who just replaced a diesel car with an electric car, there are a few factors which is making EVs very attractive here:<p>- EVs are VAT (25%) exempt, and in addition avoid the extra duty due to no CO2 or NOX emissions. As an example a VW Golf 1.0 115HP TSI[1] gasoline version is about 37.5k USD from dealer. Without VAT or emission duties[2], that Golf would be about 23k USD, where 8.4k USD is the emission duties.<p>- Many people have a relatively short commute, so limited range EVs like Nissan Leaf or e-Golf do just fine.<p>- A lot of our roads, especially in cities, have road toll. EVs have for many years been exempt. Recently this changed, but EVs still only pays 50% of regular cars.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.volkswagen.no&#x2F;content&#x2F;dam&#x2F;vw-ngw&#x2F;vw_pkw&#x2F;importers&#x2F;no&#x2F;bilmodeller&#x2F;brosjyrer-og-priser&#x2F;golf&#x2F;Volkswagen-Golf-tekniske-data.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.volkswagen.no&#x2F;content&#x2F;dam&#x2F;vw-ngw&#x2F;vw_pkw&#x2F;importer...</a> [2]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.skatteetaten.no&#x2F;person&#x2F;avgifter&#x2F;bil&#x2F;importere&#x2F;regn-ut&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.skatteetaten.no&#x2F;person&#x2F;avgifter&#x2F;bil&#x2F;importere&#x2F;re...</a>

It&#x27;s really gas producing Norway: 3rd largest nat gas exporter. They&#x27;re ~13th in oil exports.<p>...And 2nd in worldwide median income, which is half the real reason here. The other half is that Norway has very favorable tax treatment for electric cars vs not (which is at least mentioned in this article thankfully).<p>But being the 13th largest oil exporter seems like a very dim relation that&#x27;s not really relevant, except as a cute thing. It&#x27;s like saying &quot;Wood houses popular in Granite-producing New Hampshire.&quot; &quot;Ad blockers popular among ad producing community.&quot; etc<p>[note this was commentary on submission title chosen, which previously was the same as the article: &quot;Electric cars grab almost half of sales in oil-producing Norway&quot;]

In UK I find electric cars are significantly more expensive and out of reach of the average car buyer, even with government subsidies. is this the case elsewhere? why are they so expensive? EDIT: I have a hybrid, but the equivalent electric is double the price

Norway has a system of big one time fees for new vehicles based on weight, emissions and so on. An ICE car can easily have an added fee of more than 100% the base price of the car. Add some sales tax to that and an ICE car that isn’t ultra luxurious in the US but is big and heavy will be <i>very expensive</i>. How about an F-150 for $120k? Similar for an X5 40i. The equation is basically that you can get two Model3 for the price of an F-150

Meanwhile in Germany:<p>»BMW executive and board member Klaus Fröhlich told reporters this week that the shift to cars powered by electricity is &quot;overhyped,&quot; and said that there is &quot;no&quot; consumer demand for them.«<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;6&#x2F;28&#x2F;19154233&#x2F;bmw-electric-vehicles-ev-event-executive-overhyped" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;6&#x2F;28&#x2F;19154233&#x2F;bmw-electric-veh...</a><p>* face-palm * <i>

Tesla sold 3,760 vehicles in Norway in June, for a 24.5% share of all cars during the month, and was also the top-selling brand for the first six months!!

Cars are ridiculously expensive in Norway, and lower taxes on electeics mean that Teslas can compete with that

Meanwhile in Poland…<p>A new law is being prepared (just got through the senate and went to the president for final approval) that introduces subsides for EVs, and… wait for it…<p>Natural-gas powered vehicles.<p>Yup. LNG. And the subsidy for those is supposed to be TWICE as much as for electrics.<p>This sounds mind-bogglingly insane, but starts making a little sense once you realize that Poland has almost no natural gas production, and buys it, mostly from Russia.<p>There is no facepalm emoji big enough to finish this with.<p>For Polish readers, see <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;moto.pl&#x2F;MotoPL&#x2F;7,170318,24943189,doplaty-do-samochodow-elektrycznych-coraz-blizej-senat-przyjal.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;moto.pl&#x2F;MotoPL&#x2F;7,170318,24943189,doplaty-do-samochodo...</a> for details.

This is becoming a perennial.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19566051" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19566051</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=18806930" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=18806930</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=16001298" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=16001298</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11874552" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11874552</a>

It is more than half now, and it combined the hybrid cars that often don’t charge from the wall. The total percent of “electric cars” is still around 5% overall.

In Germany, hybrids are usually lumped together with fully electric cars. Even with that trick, only a few percent of the cars on the road are electric.

I am curious how well the batteries do in the cold temperatures. Though maybe it&#x27;s only people in the south driving one ?

Once all cars are electric is global warming no longer an issue? What is the main benefit of electric?