The Norwegian government has spent the huge subsidies for electric cars not only in an environmentally but also socially misguided way.
The plan to promote the use of electric cars to reduce transport’s CO2 emissions has proved to be a complete failure in Europe.
This is clearly shown by the statistics on the changes in the total number of cars and the number of pure electric vehicles - battery electric vehicles, BEVs - during the last decade or so. We count hybrid cars as internal combustion engine cars, since the former are usually not much better than the latter.
In 2010, there were 27,018,000 cars in Great Britain. By 2022, their number increased by 3,196,000 to 30,214,000. During the same period, the number of BEVs increased by a mere 619,000.
Subsidies
In 2013, there were 221,694,000 cars in the European Union. By 2022, their number increased by 30,911,000 to 252,605,000. During the same period, the number of BEVs increased by a mere 3,056,000. This trend has continued in 2023: out of the 10.5 million new cars sold that year, only 1.5 million were BEVs - just 14.6 per cent.
Norway is constantly being hailed as a frontrunner in the promotion of electric cars. It is true that there has been a real boom of BEV sales in the country – due to generous government subsidies. However, the overall picture is not so rosy - one might even consider it tragic.
Namely, in 2010, there were 2,308,000 cars, while by 2022 this number jumped to 3,105,000 – in a country with a population of 5.4 million. During this period, the number of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars did not decrease at all.
By now, Norwegians are complaining that the quality of life in their cities is being undermined by enormous car traffic and parked cars occupying public spaces all over the cities.
Many of them think that it would have been more useful to invest more in public transport and encourage cycling and walking. Subsidies for electric cars have also increased social inequalities by primarily benefiting the wealthier individuals who usually bought one or more additional cars to the already existing one(s).
Thus, the Norwegian government has spent the huge subsidies for electric cars not only in an environmentally but also socially misguided way. Unfortunately, the same mistake has been committed in other countries too, all over Europe.
Costs
The fact that promoting electric cars has worsened instead of improving the situation proves that it is impossible to reduce ICE car use only with this measure.
The Norwegian government has spent the huge subsidies for electric cars not only in an environmentally but also socially misguided way.
Meaningful steps should be taken to reduce overall car traffic, first by eliminating the enormous subsidies for fossil fuels.
According to the study on the Internalisation of Transport External Costs, as published on the European Commission's website, revenues generated from taxes in road transport fail to cover the associated costs.
In fact, the external costs of road transport are huge in all member states: according to the study, the car costs not covered by their users in Europe range widely: from zero in Denmark to 84 per cent in Luxembourg; in the UK they constitute 64 per cent.
External costs of transport are the costs that are incurred by transport users and are covered by them – at least not directly. They include, among others, the environmental costs.
Sufficient
Therefore, the first step in the right direction should be the inclusion of these costs into the prices. In some countries, there have already been some successful steps in this direction. But this is not sufficient - far from it.
However, overall, these examples prove that such measures are possible and may gain public support. Cities could substantially contribute to this process by increasing parking fees and introducing congestion charging with parallel compensation measures applied for those in need.
Naturally, other measures, like the implementation of 30 km/h zones, low emission zones, promoting carpooling and car-sharing, improving the conditions for walking and cycling as well as upgrading public transport services are also essential.
However, getting the prices right is the most important and effective precondition for creating a climate-friendly transport system.
These authors
András Lukács is president of Clean Air Action Group (CAAG), a national association of Hungarian environmental NGOs, which has been active for more than 35 years. Aydan Gurbanova holds a master’s degree in environmental sciences and policy from Central European University and currently is a volunteer at CAAG.
