The law of unintended consequences has found another victim in Norway as the nation re-assesses its electric vehicle incentives amid soaring sales.
Monday marked the 50,000th EV sold in Norway since the nation implemented incentives in 2012 meant to encourage electric-vehicle adoption among its citizens. The incentive includes toll and parking fee exemptions, free use of charging stations, and bus-lane usage in addition to the usual tax credit scheme, Reuters reports. The milestone arrived three years earlier than expected by the government, whose official data shows that one-fifth of 2015 new-car sales in Norway are of electric models. Norway, a nation of 5.1 million, now accounts for one-third of all battery-powered vehicle sales in Europe based on 2014 sales figures.
As such, the nation’s finance ministry is looking to revise those incentives, especially in light of losing kr3 billion to kr4 billion ($380 million to $510 million USD) in revenue, as well as complaints about increased sales of the Tesla Model S, which made up 3 percent of overall EV sales last year. The latter issue has led to calls from critics to remove the incentives for wealthy consumers.
The finance ministry will present the outcome of its review when the revised budget is presented May 1.
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