
Electric Nissan Leaf has become the most popular car in Norway - thomasfl
http://mobil.dn.no/c.jsp?rssid=25548281&cid=25545171&item=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dn.no%2Ffeed%2Fmobiletech%2Farticle%3Faid%3D2710523
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Theodores
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.

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hxw
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.

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martinald
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.

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hxw
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.

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psutor
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.

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pjc50
_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)

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Loic
Direct link to the article:
[http://www.dn.no/dnBil/article2710523.ece](http://www.dn.no/dnBil/article2710523.ece)

English translation:
[http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=no&u=http:/...](http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=no&u=http://www.dn.no/dnBil/article2710523.ece)

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Skinney
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).

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biot
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...](https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=norway&sortby=create_ts+desc)

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

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calibwam
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.

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perbu
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.

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wattengard
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 :/ )

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jwatte
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.)

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

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Shivetya
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.

