While Donald Trump is making plans for drastic funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) here in the United States, other countries are ramping up the fight against vehicle emissions. Norway, already in the vanguard, recently announced a new goal in its effort to reduce the use of fossil fuels in cars. By 2025, the Norwegian government said it hopes to see 100 percent of new-car sales come from zero- or low-emission vehicles. The country?s government plans to achieve this through a tax plan, not a ban.
According to the release from the Norwegian EV Association, electric vehicles took 22 percent of the market in Norway in 2015 (for comparison, they currently make up only about 0.5 percent of U.S. vehicle sales). This impressive number is largely due to incentives the country has been doling out as far back as 1990 that include discounts on taxes (including exemption from a 25 percent VAT purchase tax), access to bus lanes, free parking, and exemption from tolls. Norway wants to continue pushing this directive with a “polluter pays? principle that incentivizes buying an electric, hydrogen, or plug-in hybrid automobile instead of a gasoline or diesel vehicle. Basically, gasoline or diesel vehicles would be taxed much more heavily than zero- or low-emission cars. With this tax system, the country believes eliminating sales of traditional gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles is possible in as little as eight years.
This bolsters Norway’s parti...