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When 90 percent of the car fleet pollutes, it is too early to think about setting taxes and fees for electric cars.
When politicians can choose between a whip and a carrot, it is easier to turn to the whip. At the same time, the same politicians arise out of a greater concern for the overcrowded treasury than for the personal finances of most people.
Now Finance Minister Jan Tore Sanner says he is open to removing the VAT exemption for electric cars after 2021, and is supported in a leadership position in various newspapers.
The problem is that it is a bad idea and that it comes too early, since you want almost all new Norwegian cars to be emission free. The figures speak for themselves: currently only one-tenth of the Norwegian car fleet is emission-free.
It is true that soon we will round up 300,000 electric cars, but it pays so little when 1.3 million gasoline cars and 1.3 million diesel cars circulate on the roads.
VEHICLES: Most cars on Norwegian roads run on gasoline or diesel.
Photo: Information Council on Road Traffic
There is a party-to-party agreement that we want more emission-free cars, and this is also key for Norwegians to meet international emissions targets. As well as contributing positively to climate bills, it is positive for local air quality in Norwegian cities that cars go electric (or run on hydrogen).
Electric car support helps, but it’s too late. And it’s an illusion to think that car buyers are driven by favorable taxes and buy an electric car neck over their head. By contrast, July figures show that 9,800 new cars were sold in Norway. Of these, 4,400 were zero emissions.
To take it with a teaspoon: Despite lower VAT, cheaper parking, cheap electricity, a clear majority still choose to buy a new car that runs on fossil fuels. And then someone is talking about phasing out the benefits of electric cars?
It hasn’t been many months since the billions were set aside when Norwegian oil companies wanted state help to extract new oil fields. The billions are equally loose when oil companies receive tax subsidies to electrify the rig.
If the next step is to make electric cars less attractive, then it’s another big step in the wrong direction. Environmental parties on the left and right must protest against such thoughts and clearly say that we first achieved the goal of virtually all new cars being emission-free, and only then can we discuss tax increases.
Here I suppose you are thinking; he himself has guaranteed the electric car. And so it is, I have an electric car, but it is more uncertain how electric car sharpening will turn out for those who already own electric cars. If VAT is increased on new cars, the value of relatively new ones is likely to increase. On the other hand, electric vehicle owners enjoy other benefits. I’m not so concerned about the benefits of today’s electric car owners, as long as the promised time horizon when you bought the car is kept. These are the new purchases that interest me. It must be more profitable to choose emission-free and politicians must deliver on their promises.
Theorists at the economic desk claim that the VAT exemption costs the Treasury eight billion crowns. It is based on a false assumption, namely that electric car buyers would pay 23 percent more for the same car if the tax were increased.
The assumption is false because the alternative for many would be a gasoline or diesel car in the same price range. When charging issues and range anxiety are taken into account, electric cars are harder to drive than pollutants. The simplest proof is that the majority still buy gasoline and diesel cars. In other words, they don’t find the support of the electric car favorable enough to cover personal expenses.
For many, it is a thorn in the side that the VAT exemption also applies to expensive electric cars, but it is an illogical argument based on envy. Let’s say you can afford a car for a million crowns. You can then buy a Tesla for that price or another luxury car that costs 813,000 crowns before VAT and a million crowns after.
If you remove the insulted “Tesla advantage”, buyers in this segment will choose an expensive polluting car instead. The advantage of linking this benefit to VAT is that it gives the same relative impetus to buy an electric car in all price ranges. It makes sense, and politicians should have the ability to drive through vague conversations about how many billions the state supports Tesla owners. If you set a ceiling of, say, NOK 600,000 for a new electric car, you make the decision to buy a more favorable fossil-powered car equivalent to many billions of crowns.
The Norwegian electric vehicle policy has been a success, but we are far from reaching our goal. Even strong incentives like tax relief, the right to drive on public transport, and cheap parking are enough to tempt most to buy an emission-free car.
If we want to achieve the goal of all new cars being emission-free, then a stronger liquor is needed. Either it must be more favorable to buy an electric car, for example through a government subsidy, or it must be less favorable to buy a new gasoline and diesel car.
Whip or carrot, that is.
Cutting the electric car stand now is not just a wrong time, it is an old-fashioned way of thinking. Almost fossil.
P.S! What do you mean? Should we cut back on the benefits of the electric car before the entire car fleet goes electric? And are there too many or too few benefits of the electric car? Write a reader letter!
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