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Comment by INTPenis | Hacker News Reader

I'm hearing more and more electric cars pass me in traffic and about half of them are not Teslas. (Sweden)

I have no numbers to back this up, just observations of a cyclist commuter in Malmö.

Edit: According to this absolutely awful website[1] it's up to 113,790 EVs in Sweden in 2020.

And according to this[2] much better website jan-nov in 2020 saw 93k gasoline driven cars vs. 21k EVs. So we're not even close to Norway. :(

1. https://www.elbilsstatistik.se/elbilsstatistik

2. https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/statistik-efter-amne/tran...

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As far as I know there's not much incentive to buy electric in Sweden, where in Norway they're heavily subsidised.

Also, small internet, Hello from Caroli, Malmo!

[EDIT: Cars otherwise being heavily taxed and EV's being Tax free, both at purchase time and with annual car taxes (with additional perks such as no parking tolls and driving in bus lanes) is the definition of subsidised]

They are not subsidized in Norway, just exempt from taxes.

Taxes are absolutely enormous though so it is really a huge subsidy in a way.

> just exempt from taxes

That's a form of subsidy.

> Subsidies come in various forms including: direct (cash grants, interest-free loans) and indirect (tax breaks, insurance, low-interest loans, accelerated depreciation, rent rebates).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidy

It's not so much that they are heavily subsidized per se. but rather that IC cars are heavily taxed. A Tesla in Norway costs slightly more than in the US, while an 'equivalent' BMW or Audi can cost ~3 times as much as in the US.

> IC cars are heavily taxed. A Tesla in Norway costs slightly more than in the US

This is a form of subsidy (namely a tax break). Tesla also benefits from subsidies in the US.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidy

Note that PHEVs also receive substantial tax breaks, such that the advantage of an BEV over a PHEV is mostly only the 25% VAT

The annual registration, toll road and parking fee exemptions have all been abolished, but there is a goal of it being max 50% of an ICE car

You do have up to 60k SEK *EV subsidy in Sweden: https://www.transportstyrelsen.se/en/road/Vehicles/bonus-mal...

More details on Norwegian incentives (not updated for the removal of exemption of registration tax): https://elbil.no/english/norwegian-ev-policy/

Looks like the market share for electric hit 50% in December for Sweden if you count Plug-in Hybrids[1]. So a bit more optimistic! Clean Technica does great reporting for these numbers.

[1] https://cleantechnica.com/2021/01/05/sweden-hits-record-50-e...

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