Hacker News Reader

Comment by fhbdukfrh | Hacker News Reader

The combination of people fighting oil production in their own countries while making very few meaningful changes to their consumption patterns is a massive example of NIMBYism

View on HN

While the average consumption of a Norwegian is still too darned high, Norwegians have certainly been changing their consumption patterns in the last years:

- Highest proportion of electric vehicles of any country in the world: https://cleantechnica.com/2017/08/19/top-electric-car-countr...

- Establishing new onshore windmill farms: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-wind-idUSKCN1RD27H

- The rules for the government pension fund (aka. the oil fund) have become much more strict about investments in coal recently: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https...

Full disclosure: I am a Norwegian.

Are Norwegians buying electric cars because of tax savings (cheaper) or because they want to save the environment?

One factor is that the price of gas is about $1.6/L (~$6/gallon), while electricity still is very cheap. Most people also don't generally need to drive all that far, so a shorter-range electric car is perfect for daily driving. There are TONS of Nissan Leafs out here in the suburbs where I live. In 2018 the Nissan Leaf was the most sold car in Norway.

Buying an electric car in Norway also gives you much more than just tax savings (but they do have a lot of those). You don't have to pay road tolls, you can use the highway lane reserved for taxis and busses, you can park and charge for free in government provided parking spaces, you have 50% off tickets for ferries, cheaper mandatory yearly road insurance, and some shopping centres previously had free charging while you shop.

The right to drive in the bus-lanes was changed to only with at least one passenger during rush-hour, as they became so clogged that busses were stuck in traffic as well. The free road toll will be changed to 50% off this year, and the exemption from sales-tax is up for review in 2020. The free charging on government provided parking will be limited to 4 hours this year, and a fee per hour will be introduced. You can still park for free though, but those spots with charging stations are too popular.

Tax savings, no doubt. The motivation behind the reduced taxes is to bring economy and ethics in balance, so they're working as intended.

Sounds like rent seeking on the part of the electric vehicle companies.

Could be, but given the much larger influence that the state oil company Equinor (previously Statoil) exerts on the government, I'd not think it's likely.

Code blocks don't wrap and are limited to a very narrow width on mobile, making prose difficult to read. I suggest putting each list item in a separate paragraph instead of using code blocks.

Done.

Very easy to be green if you're rich. Teslas aren't cheap

Don’t pretend that Tesla is the only EV.

Tesla is by far the most popular car in Norway, and the highest per capita ownership in the world.

Don't expect people to change their consumption patterns when the economics so strongly favor one set of behaviors.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com