Global Times - Weekend

Subsidies power electric-car sales

Convention­al vehicles maintain cost advantage

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The Norwegian island of Finnoey has the highest density of electric cars in the world. The reason? They are exempt from the $6,000-a-year toll charges for the tunnel to the mainland.

There has been a surge in sales of fully electric cars like Teslas and Nissan Leafs since the tunnel opened in 2009 and they now account for one in five cars on Finnoey, compared with less than 1 in 100 globally.

According to the Internatio­nal Energy Agency, 29 percent of all new car registrati­ons in Norway were fully electric or plug-in hybrids last year, far ahead of the Netherland­s in second place with 6.4 percent and Sweden in third with 3.4 percent.

China had almost 1.5 percent and the US less than 1 percent.

Government subsidies support sales of electric cars around the world, and Norway has the most electric cars per capita thanks to the most generous handouts.

It offers nationwide tax breaks for users of electric cars that can be worth tens of thousands of dollars, plus various local incentives like exemptions from road tolls and parking fees.

“Economic incentives work, especially if they are very, very, very strong as in Finnoey,” said former Norwegian central bank governor Svein Gjedrem, who grew up on the western island chain of 3,250 people, which is famous for its fish farms and tomatoes.

A reliance on state handouts complicate­s efforts in nations like Britain and France to phase out internal combustion engines in favor of battery-powered vehicles, which are far costlier, have limited ranges and often have long charging times.

It means the technology will have to become significan­tly cheaper if those government­s are to meet pledges to ban sales of gasoline- and dieselpowe­red cars from 2040 without having to hand out crippling levels of subsidies to millions of buyers.

A tale of two contrastin­g Norwegian municipali­ties – Finnoey and neighborin­g Hjelmeland on the mainland – starkly illustrate­s the power of financial incentives on consumer behavior.

A Finnoey resident driving to work in the nearby oil hub of Stavanger with an electric car can save 40,000 crowns ($5,500) to 50,000 crowns a year in tunnel tolls compared with drivers of fossil-fueled cars.

Hjelmeland bucks the Norwegian trend by offering no local benefits for battery-powered cars.

Almost 10 percent of people on Finnoey have electrics cars, compared with fewer than 1 percent in Hjelmeland, which is much bigger and has a similar population, according to a previously unpublishe­d ranking of all regions from Statistics Norway that was provided to Reuters.

“It’s all about the economics, not about ideology,” Wictor Juul, head of administra­tion for the Hjelmeland municipali­ty, said of the contrastin­g ownership rates.

Withdrawal symptoms

Norway is among the world’s richest countries because of its oil and gas exports – yet even there electric car incentives are being curbed because of the strain on public finances and a faster-than-expected adoption of battery-powered cars.

For example, Norway has just scrapped nationwide directives that parking, transport by state-owned ferries and road tolls should be free for electric vehicles, instead leaving it to local authoritie­s’ discretion. It is also reviewing tax breaks for the most expensive luxury electric cars.

So far the reversals have had no apparent impact on sales. “I’m not too worried,” said Christina Bu, head of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle As- sociation, because other benefits such as an exemption from value-added tax are staying in place.

There are examples elsewhere in the world of the consequenc­es of withdrawin­g electric car benefits.

Sales of Nissan Leafs in the US state of Georgia, for instance, plunged after authoritie­s revoked a $5,000 tax break in 2015.

Electric car imports to Denmark fell sharply last year, bucking a European trend, after Copenhagen cut subsidies. Sales of Teslas fell to 176 from 2,738 the year before.

Musk loves Norway

In Norway, a Tesla Model S electric sedan costs 636,000 crowns pre-tax, almost double the 320,000 crowns pre-tax cost of an Audi A7 gasoline car, according to the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Associatio­n.

But the Audi ends up costing more when sold – 697,000 crowns – after including taxes led by sales tax (140,000 crowns), carbon dioxide tax (125,000 crowns) and a special tax on the weight of the vehicle (110,000 crowns).

By contrast, a Tesla buyer is charged only a small fee for end-of-life scrapping and pays 638,000 crowns in total.

It’s little wonder that Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted in June: “I love Norway, which is the world leader in EV [electric vehicle] adoption!” His company has invested heavily in Norway, for instance with fast charger networks.

The Norwegian finance ministry said that basic tax breaks totaled about a cumulative 12 billion crowns by the end of 2016. There are now about 140,000 fully electric cars on the road.

Britain and France, the only two countries to announce deadlines for phasing out internal combustion engines, also offer generous subsidies to electric car buyers.

Buyers in Britain get a grant of up to 35 percent of the purchase price, while in France someone selling a diesel car and buying an electric vehicle gets thousands of euros in benefits.

Norway’s Environmen­t Minister Vidar Helgesen acknowledg­ed that the country’s subsidies model was expensive.

But he predicted that advances in the technology would mean electric cars would be price-competitiv­e with combustion engine cars in the early 2020s.

Finnoey Mayor Henrik Halleland agreed, saying that battery-powered car sales could ultimately survive without large financial incentives.

The island’s tunnel toll charges for combustion engines go toward paying the 550 million crown cost of building the tunnel. Once the debt is paid, the tunnel will be free for all.

“Electric cars are getting so good that people will buy them anyway,” said Halleland.

Still, he now wants electric car owners to pay 50 percent of the rate paid by diesel and gasoline cars. He’s not planning to buy an electric vehicle himself, saying that he has to keep his combustion engine Mazda to pay the tolls and do his bit to pay off the tunnel.

Electric car owners are unapologet­ic though.

“It’s all about political choices,” said Arne Nordboe, a teacher and part-time stand-up comedian who drives a Nissan Leaf.

“I think it would be reasonable when electric cars get cheaper and cheaper and more useful, then I can pay more.”

 ?? Photo: IC ?? Supercharg­er station for charging Tesla S electric cars in Bergen, Norway
Photo: IC Supercharg­er station for charging Tesla S electric cars in Bergen, Norway

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