EdmondLeaf
Well-known member
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013...reuters/environment+(News+/+US+/+Environment)
Norway's buzzing little market for pure electric cars has in its very success shown the severe drawbacks to a model that relies on public subsidies worth as much as $8,200 per car, every year.
Car makers like Nissan, Mitsubishi, Peugeot Citroen and Tesla Motors see Norway and its 10,000 battery-powered vehicles as a reason for optimism in otherwise gloomy terrain.
Holtsmark estimates that a Toyota Prius hybrid emits 0.6 tonne of carbon dioxide a year against zero for a Leaf. Scaling up the Leaf's subsidies means Norway is paying $13,600 to avoid a tonne of emissions, a stratospherically expensive policy since the right to emit a tonne of carbon dioxide costs about 4 euros on the EU's carbon market.
Norway's enthusiasm notwithstanding, many carmakers acknowledge the all-electric market has not become as mainstream as they hoped when they gambled billions of dollars on the technology.
Carmakers are shifting from all-electric towards hybrids like the Prius, which has a gasoline engine backed up by an electric motor that traps energy when the brakes are applied.
"Demand for electric cars isn't where we thought it would be," Francois Bancon, Nissan's upstream development chief, said at the Geneva car show last week. "We're in a very uncertain phase, and everyone's a bit lost."
Electric car owners in Norway are already starting to worry about the long-term future of their investment.
"If the bus lane is closed the economic aspect of the car will be terrible," said Are Paulsrud, who drives a Mitsubishi electric car.
"The car cost 250,000 crowns and if the bus lane is closed ... I won't be able to sell it."