It will eliminate the benefits of the electric car in tolls – VG

Because unchanged, toll revenue will drop significantly as more and more people drive electric and the goal is that from 2025 on, passenger cars that have climate-damaging emissions will not be sold.

On Monday, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Knut Arild Hareide, received a report on future revenues in the toll networks from a committee of experts appointed by the government last year.

– No immediate change

– That at some point we are need do something, the report is very clear there. But i won’t say when the right time is. I think it will be just the big political test in this, what time is the right time to do something, says the Minister of Transport to VG.

He believes that the report provides a good basis for debate and political decisions.

– There will be no immediate change here and now, but I think this report will make a long-term change.

Hareide notes that the more we achieve zero growth goals, the less money goes to infrastructure and public transportation. And if you do nothing, your traffic will increase and your income will go down.

Just look at the tolls

The committee has not considered whether other benefits of electric cars, such as the VAT exemption and the single tax exemption, should be eliminated, but they believe that fossil fuel-powered cars and electric cars should be treated the same.

– There is no reason for electric cars to have VAT exemption in themselves, when they do the same kind of damage in the form of queues and noise as other cars. However, the CO2 tax for other cars makes it more expensive not to choose an electric car anyway, committee leader Annegrete Bruvol tells VG

The report estimates that annual revenue from tolls in Trondheim, Bergen, Nord-Jæren and Oslo will fall by an average of 23%, corresponding to NOK 1.4 billion, by 2030. At the same time, tolls will increase by 25 %.

The main reason for the drop in toll revenues is exemptions and discounts at toll booths for electric cars, of which there are more and more.

If toll revenues are maintained at the current level, while the benefits of the electric car are maintained, the rates for gasoline and diesel vehicles should almost double by 2030, the report notes.

– We still have many tasks to solve and we must ensure an urban development that respects the environment. So we need a sustainable toll system and we should look for alternative solutions like road charging, Hareide says in a press release.

The committee recommends abolishing current schemes with exemptions and reduced rates for electric cars in toll projects, noting that toll rates should generally reflect the costs that car use imposes on society. Experts recommend taking advantage of the current toll system until a road pricing system becomes relevant.

Positive for road prices

– I am sure of the idea of ​​a road pricing system, but it will be in a few years. I still think that it is advisable to investigate the prices of the roads in more detail, and then we can address the debate on how such a system should be designed to work well and protect important elements such as privacy, says Hareide in the press release .

The report will reach a hearing. The Minister of Transport and Communications pointed out that the current system is not sustainable if the goal of zero emissions is reached in 2025.

– At some point, we must capture this, Hareide believes.

Negative NAF

NAF is not impressed with the committee’s report.

– A bad solution like tolls in cities today does not improve because more people are affected. The report points to contradictions in tolls where tolls are used both of them to reduce traffic while wanting to earn increasing revenue for major transportation projects, Camilla Ryste, NAF communications manager, tells VG.

She believes that politicians should rather consider increasing government contributions to the development of major roads and public transportation in cities.

– We are against tolls, which is why we think that introducing more and more tolls on both fossil and electric conductors is a bad idea, says Ryste, who believes that roads and public transport projects should be financed by the community.

Warns against wobbling

Liberal Party fiscal policy spokesman Ola Elvestuen believes the current level of electric cars should be maintained.

– The benefits of the electric car must be as good as necessary for Norway to reach the zero emission target for all new cars in Norway from 2025, it says in an email transmitted through the party’s information department.

– The goal is within reach, we must not hesitate now. We see that the policy works. The air has never been cleaner in Norwegian municipalities and climate emissions are declining for the fourth year in a row. There must be room for longevity in Norwegian politics, now we must let the electric car policy work. If we start to waver now, then we can end up like Denmark, says Elvestuen, noting that the Danes had to turn around and reintroduce the benefits of the electric car.

FRP’s transport policy spokesman Bård Hoksrud believes that motorists may have to pay even more than today.

– It only took two minutes to get the good news that tolls will go down in the next ten years until Knut Arild Hareide came up with a plan to tax motorists more through road prices. That says everything. The government is proposing a policy that will impose even more taxes on people, Hoksrud says in an email sent through Frp’s communications department at the Storting.

– In the report, you can also read that it is estimated that the estimated revenues from electronic road pricing will approximately triple in 2030 if it is introduced, compared to an alternative where there are only barriers. It just shows that the price of roads is a golden instrument for tax-hungry politicians to steal money from motorists, says Hoksrud, who believes cities should eliminate costly and poor solutions rather than “annoy motorists with more tolls or road prices. “

– It’s also worth noting that Hareide points out that starting in 2025 only zero-emission cars will be sold. You want to remove the option and when you do, you can also activate the rates as you wish.

Lukewarm ODM

ODM Vice President Arild Hermstad is not particularly enthusiastic about the proposal to phase out the benefits of the electric car.

– You always have to pay to choose an electric car. Electric cars will eventually have to pay tolls as well, but pollution must be more expensive, and therefore gasoline and diesel should pay more. Also, it should be more expensive to buy fossil cars, he writes in an email.

Hermstad does not reject road prices, but does not believe it is a solution in the near future.

– The pricing of the roads is not a quick solution if they are going to replace the tolls and it is later, but I am not negative about it.