Denmark Is Killing Tesla (and Other Electrical Cars)
Denmark Is Killing Tesla (and Other Electrified Cars)
How Tesla and the Electrified Car Conquered Norway
The electrified car has dropped out of favor in the country that pioneered renewable energy.
Sales in Denmark of Electrically Chargeable Vehicles (ECV), which include plug-in hybrids, plunged 60.Five percent in the very first quarter of the year, compared with the very first three months of 2016, according to latest data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). That contrasts with an increase of almost eighty percent in neighboring Sweden and an average rise of thirty percent in the European Union.
The figures suggest clean-energy vehicles still aren’t attractive enough to contest without some form of subsidy.
Denmark, a global leader in wind power whose own attempt at an electrical car in the early 1980s famously flopped, used to be captivated with them. Its bicycle-loving people bought Five,298 of them in 2015, more than dual the amount sold that year in Italy, which has a population more than ten times the size of Denmark's.
However, it turns out that those phenomenal sales figures had as much to do with convenience as with environmental concerns: electrical car dealers were for a long time spared the jaw-dropping import tax of one hundred eighty percent that Denmark applies on vehicles fueled by a traditional combustion engine. 
In the fall of 2015, the Liberal-led government of Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen announced the progressive phasing out of tax violates on electrical cars, citing budget constraints and the desire to level the playing field.
Tesla, whose sales were skyrocketing at the time, lobbied against the budge, with Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk warning during a visit to Copenhagen that sales would be hit. 
The fresh tax regime “downright killed the market,” Laerke Flader, head of the Danish Electrified Car Alliance, said in a latest interview. “Price indeed matters.”
According to the government’s original plans, tax violates were to have been phased out from two thousand sixteen to 2020, when they would be treated in the same way as fossil fuel-powered cars.
But on April Legal, having taken note of the drop in sales, the government determined to switch the rules.
“It’s no secret electrical vehicle sales have been below what we expected a year and a half ago,” Tax Minister Karsten Lauritzen said in a statement. “The agreed phase-in has turned out to be hard and that likely halted sales.”
The fresh rules mean the transition to a post-subsidy era has been postponed until at least Five,000 fresh electrified cars are sold over the 2016-2018 period. Tax cracks will in any case be progressively eliminated as of 2019, regardless of sales numbers. The plan envisages a forty percent registration tax minus a Ten,000 kroner ($1,500) deduction in 2019, with the tax rising to sixty five percent in 2021, ninety percent in two thousand twenty one and one hundred percent in 2022.
Flader said electrical car dealers have spinned back their sales drive as a result.
One of the hardest hit is Tesla, the global poster child of electrified cars, whose Model S once predominated the Danish market.
Flader, however, anticipates a rebound in sales as soon as dealerships are permitted to advertise tax-free prices again.
Denmark Is Killing Tesla (and Other Electrical Cars)
Denmark Is Killing Tesla (and Other Electrified Cars)
How Tesla and the Electrical Car Conquered Norway
The electrified car has dropped out of favor in the country that pioneered renewable energy.
Sales in Denmark of Electrically Chargeable Vehicles (ECV), which include plug-in hybrids, plunged 60.Five percent in the very first quarter of the year, compared with the very first three months of 2016, according to latest data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). That contrasts with an increase of almost eighty percent in neighboring Sweden and an average rise of thirty percent in the European Union.
The figures suggest clean-energy vehicles still aren’t attractive enough to challenge without some form of subsidy.
Denmark, a global leader in wind power whose own attempt at an electrified car in the early 1980s famously flopped, used to be captivated with them. Its bicycle-loving people bought Five,298 of them in 2015, more than dual the amount sold that year in Italy, which has a population more than ten times the size of Denmark's.
However, it turns out that those phenomenal sales figures had as much to do with convenience as with environmental concerns: electrical car dealers were for a long time spared the jaw-dropping import tax of one hundred eighty percent that Denmark applies on vehicles fueled by a traditional combustion engine. 
In the fall of 2015, the Liberal-led government of Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen announced the progressive phasing out of tax violates on electrical cars, citing budget constraints and the desire to level the playing field.
Tesla, whose sales were skyrocketing at the time, lobbied against the budge, with Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk warning during a visit to Copenhagen that sales would be hit. 
The fresh tax regime “fully killed the market,” Laerke Flader, head of the Danish Electrical Car Alliance, said in a latest interview. “Price truly matters.”
According to the government’s original plans, tax cracks were to have been phased out from two thousand sixteen to 2020, when they would be treated in the same way as fossil fuel-powered cars.
But on April Eighteen, having taken note of the drop in sales, the government determined to switch the rules.
“It’s no secret electrical vehicle sales have been below what we expected a year and a half ago,” Tax Minister Karsten Lauritzen said in a statement. “The agreed phase-in has turned out to be hard and that likely halted sales.”
The fresh rules mean the transition to a post-subsidy era has been postponed until at least Five,000 fresh electrical cars are sold over the 2016-2018 period. Tax violates will in any case be progressively eliminated as of 2019, regardless of sales numbers. The plan envisages a forty percent registration tax minus a Ten,000 kroner ($1,500) deduction in 2019, with the tax rising to sixty five percent in 2021, ninety percent in two thousand twenty one and one hundred percent in 2022.
Flader said electrified car dealers have flipped back their sales drive as a result.
One of the hardest hit is Tesla, the global poster child of electrified cars, whose Model S once predominated the Danish market.
Flader, however, anticipates a rebound in sales as soon as dealerships are permitted to advertise tax-free prices again.
Denmark Is Killing Tesla (and Other Electrical Cars)
Denmark Is Killing Tesla (and Other Electrical Cars)
How Tesla and the Electrified Car Conquered Norway
The electrical car has dropped out of favor in the country that pioneered renewable energy.
Sales in Denmark of Electrically Chargeable Vehicles (ECV), which include plug-in hybrids, plunged 60.Five percent in the very first quarter of the year, compared with the very first three months of 2016, according to latest data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). That contrasts with an increase of almost eighty percent in neighboring Sweden and an average rise of thirty percent in the European Union.
The figures suggest clean-energy vehicles still aren’t attractive enough to contest without some form of subsidy.
Denmark, a global leader in wind power whose own attempt at an electrical car in the early 1980s famously flopped, used to be captivated with them. Its bicycle-loving people bought Five,298 of them in 2015, more than dual the amount sold that year in Italy, which has a population more than ten times the size of Denmark's.
However, it turns out that those phenomenal sales figures had as much to do with convenience as with environmental concerns: electrical car dealers were for a long time spared the jaw-dropping import tax of one hundred eighty percent that Denmark applies on vehicles fueled by a traditional combustion engine. 
In the fall of 2015, the Liberal-led government of Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen announced the progressive phasing out of tax cracks on electrified cars, citing budget constraints and the desire to level the playing field.
Tesla, whose sales were skyrocketing at the time, lobbied against the budge, with Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk warning during a visit to Copenhagen that sales would be hit. 
The fresh tax regime “totally killed the market,” Laerke Flader, head of the Danish Electrical Car Alliance, said in a latest interview. “Price indeed matters.”
According to the government’s original plans, tax cracks were to have been phased out from two thousand sixteen to 2020, when they would be treated in the same way as fossil fuel-powered cars.
But on April Legal, having taken note of the drop in sales, the government determined to switch the rules.
“It’s no secret electrical vehicle sales have been below what we expected a year and a half ago,” Tax Minister Karsten Lauritzen said in a statement. “The agreed phase-in has turned out to be hard and that likely halted sales.”
The fresh rules mean the transition to a post-subsidy era has been postponed until at least Five,000 fresh electrified cars are sold over the 2016-2018 period. Tax violates will in any case be progressively eliminated as of 2019, regardless of sales numbers. The plan envisages a forty percent registration tax minus a Ten,000 kroner ($1,500) deduction in 2019, with the tax rising to sixty five percent in 2021, ninety percent in two thousand twenty one and one hundred percent in 2022.
Flader said electrical car dealers have spinned back their sales drive as a result.
One of the hardest hit is Tesla, the global poster child of electrified cars, whose Model S once predominated the Danish market.
Flader, however, anticipates a rebound in sales as soon as dealerships are permitted to advertise tax-free prices again.