The rumor that Norway is planning to ban gas-powered car sales by 2025 shows that vague Tweets have the potential to produce a misinformed population.
Tesla’s Elon Musk misinterpreted the Norwegian newspaper as exclaiming that there would be a ban on fuel cars.
Musk Tweeted, “Just heard that Norway will ban new sales of fuel cars in 2025. What an amazingly awesome country. You guys rock!!”
What the Norwegian article stated was that Norway plans to influence consumers to prefer electric vehicles and hopefully lead to a decline of fossil-fuel cars sold by 2025. By implementing green policies and making electric vehicles more attractive, the goal is to informally change the way consumers purchase vehicles.
The editor of Norsk Klimastiftelse/Energi og Klima, Anders Bjartnes, stated, “the target will be backed up by a series of efforts (taxes, subsidies, charging stations, hydrogen infrastructure, differentiated rush-hour taxes, etc.) to maintain high speed in the transition.”
The confusion surrounding the ban may have also stemmed from Norwegian left wing parties that confirmed the ban was going to take place. Right wing parties instead denied the assumption.
The right wing party stated, “The government and its partners agree on a new step on the way towards a low-emission society … but there is no talk of banning the sale of diesel and petrol vehicles in 2025 as one would be led to believe in Dagens Næringsliv.”
In the future the parties aim to reduce emissions and create a national transport plan. Exactly how they will go about doing that is undecided. Although Norway is not introducing a ban on gas-powered vehicles, there have considerable environmental successes. In 2015 17.1 percent of new car registrations were for zero emission vehicles.
The transition to electric vehicles will take encouragement and time, but not by forceful means.
