Norway has asked people to stop driving their EVs so much and get on buses and trains.
According to the government, an electric car is still a car that takes up space on roads, has manufacturing and maintenance costs, and requires energy to move it around, which has to come from somewhere.
Norwegian transport minister Jon-Ivar Nygard said, “Electric cars give us greener transport, but they also have a clear intermodal competition with public transport in urban areas. We must make it more attractive to travel by public transport, cycle, and walk.”
Norway will do this by removing or reducing some of the incentives for buying and driving EVs.
In terms of efficiency, for CO2 and emissions in general, it is always going to be better to use mass transit than individual cars, no matter how green they are. Norway’s problem is that it gave enticing incentives to people for driving EVs that now they don’t want to use anything else for a commute.
Norway has a lot of toll roads. If you ever drive, there then you have to register your car and add a bank card; then it works out the total and charges you. However, if you’re in an electric vehicle then the road tolls are substantially reduced. This may not be the case if the government decides to push public transit over personal transportation.
It’s just that driving yourself when other options are available isn’t the best way to reduce emissions.
