Norway seeks ‘Tesla tax’ to trim lavish electric car subsidies

Teslas in Norway [image credit: Norsk Elbilforening (Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association)]

The electric subsidy party could be winding down for Norwegian car buyers if the government gets its way. It points out that ‘large electric cars wear out the roads just as much as normal cars’.

Norway plans to trim lavish tax breaks for Tesla and other electric cars that have given it the world’s highest rate of battery-vehicle ownership, the right-wing government proposed on Thursday [reports Reuters].

The draft 2018 budget would mainly affect large cars weighing more than two tons, it said. Norwegian media dubbed the changes a “Tesla Tax”, intended to cut down on sales of luxury models such as Tesla’s Model X sport utility vehicle.

The proposal would change an exemption from motor vehicle registration tax and discounts in taxation of company cars. Norwegian media estimated it could push up the price of a Tesla Model X by 70,000 Norwegian crowns ($8,850).“Electric cars will still be accorded significant advantages in comparison with cars running on fossil fuels,” the proposal said. It keeps in place breaks from value-added tax and benefits for zero carbon pollution.

Twenty-nine percent of all new car registrations in Norway were fully electric or plug-in hybrids last year, according to the International Energy Agency, far ahead of the second-place Netherlands, with 6.4 percent, and Sweden in third, on 3.4.

“Norway is gambling with the electric car market,” Petter Haugneland of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association told Reuters.

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