Norwegian Car of the Year 2014! Norwgian Car of the Year 2014 is the Model S. It was the people's favourite, with 24% of the vote (runner up, Subaru Forrester, got 6.6%) and a unanimous decision by the jury. The BMW i3 came second. I just have to link this article as well, as it must be the most gushing article I've seen: An All Electric Folk Hero.
Actually, yes. It does read a bit like a somewhat confused love letter. (Though some of it is probably lost in the translation.)
Does anyone know what the wait time in Norway currently is? Also, any history of deliveries per month? I remember seeing something when people were trying to make Q3 delivery estimates.. Any info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks
It was interesting. Because the translation of "tenderloin" and "tender" works in English as well. It's almost lewd in English. I was curious if it was similar in the original form.
Well, the only sad part about it is, that without such extraordinary help from the government, electric vehicles are, as the article admits, just as expensive (or even more so in many cases) as comparable ICE's. I would actually love the current German governmental negotiations between the Conservatives and the Social democrats to fail, because then the alternative would be the Conservatives and the Green party, which would make EV incentives far more realistic here. As it stands, EVs will have a hard time here - for many years to come. No matter whether they are as great as the Model S or not, the majority of people will see them (as they do now) as expensive bragging toys for the rich. Very sad indeed. But all the more reason to give Norway two thumbs up for their foresighted polititians (I always thought that was contradiction in terms).
I am quite sure that Norway is now where the rest of the world will be in 5-10 years. As batteries drop in price and the volume of EVs climbs ever higher, the production costs will continue to fall rapidly. Norway has basically artificially lowered the price of the EVs to the price range they will be at in 5-10 years. There comes a point where the rest of the world, much like Norway, realizes that electric cars are cheap, practical, fun, comfortable, safe and green, and at that point, things will start to happen very quickly.
I don't quite agree with your comparison. In Norway the car is cheap because it's equivalent to a Passat. A PASSAT! It's a factor of two or more cheaper than the M5 or similar cars. Therefore Norway has made the car as cheap to buy as ordinary family saloons yet this is a luxury car so it's heavily subsidized. In addition the cost to own will make it even cheaper. What for example the incentive program in Estonia has done (the 18k subsidy, nothing else) is that it's equivalent in price to mid-class Audis (i.e. A6, S5) and mid-to-high end BMW cars etc. A 90k car will cost the same to own thanks to the subsidy as a 50-60k Audi. Therefore the government has brought the car price to a region where it can effectively compete with its direct competition without needing to worry about a bit higher price from being electric. To get to Norways level the subsidy would have to be 40k and the car to compete with 30k cars or even less.
I don't see a disagreement with my comparison in your post. But anyway, the situation in Norway is a bit different than in many other countries because (especially but not only) powerful ICE's are taxed very heavily, making them far more expensive to buy and own than for example here. In Germany, the VAT is the same for every car, ICE or EV, small microcar or top of the line luxury Rolls. There is no such thing here like extra tax for powerful engines or any other kind of eco tax. That you pay at the pump... So of course, ownership costs for powerful ICE's (as well as insurance and road tax) is higher than for small and economical cars, but surely not as expensive as in Norway I would think.
But is it really a subsidy? As I understand it (and in addition to what Austin said above), it’s just that in Norway they removed the VAT on the Tesla. And added an extra progressive tax on large, heavy gas-guzzlers. I think removing the VAT for EVs is great. If Sweden also removed the VAT on EVs, I could actually ‘sell’ a Model S to some relatives of mine…