Electric Nissan Leaf has become the most popular car in Norway | Hacker News Reader

Electric Nissan Leaf has become the most popular car in Norway

mobil.dn.no

48 pointsthomasfl23 comments

Norwegians: Why would you buy an old fashioned petrol/diesel car when the electric version is nice and quiet, easier to drive, gets sold tax free, is able to whizz down the bus lanes, gets a free pass on toll roads, can be 'refuelled' for less and comes with free parking?

Obviously there is range but you can hire a car for that or just get the old car out of the garage.

You guys are going to be laughing at us and our 'Top Gear' broom-broom motoring culture in a few years time! Please do so loudly and shame us into changing our ways too.

Because a Nissan Leaf still costs ~$30-35000 in Norway. I can buy a used, reliable, petrol car for under half of that.

And the incentives the Norwegian Government introduced to encourage people to buy electric cars, will not last forever. It will definitely last through 2017, but after that - no one knows. The Norwegian Government will probably lose too much money, if people stopped buying petrol cars today.

Not really - Norway exports a huge amount of oil. They have one of the world's biggest sovereign wealth funds from the proceeds. It's currently worth ~$700billion. Considering there are only 5 million people in the country, they are not short of cash. So - any oil usage saved is somewhat made up by export revenues which go back to the state.

Furthermore, the costs of electric cars will surely go down as economies of scale hit in, lessening the need for subsidies as time goes on.

Yes, we do have one of the biggest wealth funds. The problem is that we will probably have to spend more than we are spending today, if the income from taxes is reduced (our national budget will probably not become "cheaper" in the future). And if the demand for oil starts to decrease, maybe we'll spend more money than we are earning from oil export. I know this won't happen in the near future, but I still think that the electric cars will be taxed more one day. Other perks for electric car owners will probably be history in a few years too (electric cars clogging up the bus lanes).

That being said, I hope I'm wrong. I wouldn't mind owning an electric car, the day I need to own a car.

IIRC Norway has a 200% tax on petroleum-powered vehicles (despite being a huge producer), so this is not terribly surprising.

This makes a Tesla more in the price range of a small- or mid-sized BMW, and I suppose the Leaf would be extremely affordable, making it an obvious choice for anyone who is OK with the logistics of electric cars.

The Tesla price range in Norway is roughly equivalent to the BMW 320i to 328i.

The Leaf is the same price as a Ford Focus or VW Golf. So if you're looking for a car in this class, there's no extra cost to going electric.

despite being a huge producer

This is actually very sensible: conserve oil for export, add it to the long-term social fund. The exact opposite of the Saudi approach (burn it cheaply in nonsustainable vanity projects and things like desalinated water for golf courses in a desert)

Direct link to the article: http://www.dn.no/dnBil/article2710523.ece

English translation: http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=no&u=http:/...

Norway has a lot of benefits for electric cars, so that Leaf and the Tesla are bestsellers isn't surprising.

In Norway, you pay less taxes on electric vehicles (petroleum-car tax), you get to park for free several places in the city, free charging station, and you can drive in the community lanes (usually reserved for taxis and busses).

Odd that Tesla isn't mentioned in the sales table given that it was supposedly the best-selling car for the previous month:

https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=norway...

Not really. Last month was a special case: Several months of hype and preorders hit the statistics all at once when Tesla started delivery.

Here's a page where you can get sales numbers per month and for the year to date:

http://ofvas.no/bilsalget/bilsalget_2013/bilsalget_i_septemb...

According to these numbers, Tesla did 98 cars in Norway in october, and 906 year to date - the vast majority (616) in september alone.

Because Tesla is supply constrained. There is simply not enough production capacity.

Lets not fool ourselves, they are price constrained for a larger number of people. Once the rich blow through their gotta have it phase then we will see if the demand is there. Considering the X is going to cost even more I really don't care much for Tesla right now, get back to me when they compete against the Leaf

From what I've read, the price of an electric car is a less of a concern in Norway, due to very heavy subsidies and high petrol taxes.

The article says that Nissan Leaf became the most sold car in October. However, it is the fourth most sold car in 2013 so far.

There are now no less than three 1st tier, mid-sized "native" fully electric vehicles on sale here. The Leaf, the BMW i3 and the e-UP in addition to the converted Ford Focus Electric. The Leaf is finally getting some competition.

Surprising not to see Toyota participating yet. I expected them to have a head start since they have been producing hybrids ~forever.

The e-UP is hardly "mid-sized". And you forgot the MiEV and it's cousins.

Toyta had the iQ proposed for an EV-conversion, but that went to hell in a glovecompartment...

If Toyota took advantage of their partnership with Tesla and pushed out an Auris with a Leaf-like range, and an Avensis with a Model S-like range. Competitors shit would really hit the fan-belt...

(Ok, I'm done with the bad car puns now :/ )

Toyota are working on an EV but it's fuel-cell powered not battery.

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-toyota-fcv-fu...

From what I can tell, it's also the most popular car in bay area commuter lanes! (Really, you can't find an open charger these days, it's getting ridiculous.)

The Model S is outselling the Leaf in the bay area, but yeah, I see a lot of Leafs.

And companies seem to be responding! :) It seems workplace chargers are popping up left and right -- hooray!

Leaf, the peoples car of the 21st century?

Very close if not ideal daily range, cheap to operate, and of a useful size. The Beetle of the electric age.

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