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Comment by obtino | Hacker News Reader

With the price of fuel in Norway, it's not surprising to see people turning towards EV.

It's mostly taxes, EV cars have no extra tax which makes them cheaper than petrol cars which often have 100% tax added to their price, which is not really the case in most other countries.

True, also there is no VAT (which is 25%) on EV cars, and it used to be free to drive on toll roads (this year we have to pay, but much less than the petrol cars). Also, we can drive in the bus/taxi lanes.

One can only imagine this will change once EVs will start making financial dent. In many European countries there is ridiciolous rule to tax your new car based on the size of ICE. Its for example 2.5% for less than 2000ccm, and can be 18% or more if your engine is bgger than 1999ccm. This for decades was the main reason why all the 1.2, 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8 litre cars were so popular. This and highly tax gas can make for good argument for EVs. However one has to be naive not to think eventually with enough share market both EV cars and charging your car battery will be taxed thru the roof similar to how petrol is taxed. The value of EVs will get regulated downwards then of course. We also have so much oil left in Earth it will be sufficient to power cars for another 30 years.

> ridiculous rule to tax your new car based on the size of ICE

Not ridiculous at all when thinking of the environment or having cars that are friendly towards cyclists and pedestrians.

This taxation is why European cars gets so much better mileage than US cars.

regarding environment, the difference between 1999ccm and 2000ccm engine size is non existant.

You're absolutely right about the financial aspect. Once EVs hit a certain percentage of vehicles on the road, governments are going to notice that their tax revenue from gas powered cars will be in freefall due to loss of VAT on new vehicle sales as well as dropping fuel revenues.

At that point they'll definitely reinstate VAT for electric cars, and possibly levy a tax on public chargers based on how much electricity you use.

Surprising. Most oil-producing countries have dirt-cheap domestic fuel prices.

Norway is more forward thinking than most countries.

They know that oil is not going to make their country rich forever.

But domestic fuel is not cheap here (Norway). Petrol is nearly USD 2/litre, close to USD 8 per US gallon.

Electricity is slightly cheaper than some other European countries but that is changing as more and more HVDC interconnects are built and the prices are affected by the market.

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