Monday, November 18, 2013

Tesla anyone?


In Norway they practically give them away (no mention if they come with fire extinguishers), when all the subsidies are reckoned in;
Espen Andreassen is the proud owner of a new electric Nissan Leaf car, making him one of over 4,000 Norwegians who has bought an electric car so far this year. So far, nine percent of all new cars sold in Norway in 2013 have been electric.
"Cars in Norway are extremely expensive due to the way they tax cars," Andreassen told DW. "They often cost twice of what they cost in other comparable countries. But, there is basically no tax on electric vehicles. If we were going to buy a petrol or diesel car, it would have been about the same price."
Espen Andreassen and other electric car drivers enjoy a host of other benefits too. One of the more popular incentives is being allowed to use the bus lane. Electric cars speed past rush hour queues in and out of Norway's larger cities, often halving commuting times.
With all those incentives, only 10% of new car sales are of electric vehicles. And the Norwegians largely pay for them by selling petroleum;
 The country is the world's eighth largest crude oil exporter and third largest exporter of natural gas.
"Even though Norway is the country with the most electric cars per person, it's not going to save the world," says Lars Haltbrekken, chairperson of the Norwegian division of Friends of the Earth.
"The largest environmental footprint in Norway comes from our huge oil and gas production," he told DW.
Haltbrekken says that when emissions from Norway's most recently-discovered oil and gas field are calculated, they would total CO2 levels equivalent to that of 40 million cars. 

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