EV incentives
There’s no doubt that electric cars offer many benefits for the environment, but the main obstacle preventing them from being more widely adopted around the world is the cost.
To increase the number of electric vehicles on the roads, governments around the world have taken steps to encourage drivers to adopt this new, greener technology.
We’ve looked at what incentives are currently being offered around Europe, including purchase subsidies, tax bonuses, charging incentives and more, to find out which nations are doing the most to make electric vehicles a more attractive proposition.
We’ve given each nation a point for each of the following incentives they offer:
- Purchase subsidies
- Registration tax benefits
- Ownership tax benefits
- Company tax benefits
- VAT benefits
- Other financial benefits
- Local incentives
- Infrastructure incentives
Norway
Norway has long been a pioneer when it comes to electric vehicles and is the country with the largest number of plug-in vehicles per capita in the world. So it’s little surprise to see them leading the way when it comes to incentives.
The Norwegian government has offered incentives since the 1990s and today, EVs are exempt from paying registration tax and VAT, while paying the minimum amount of circulation tax (NOK 455, which is equal to about €45).
Now that electric vehicles have become so widely adopted in the country, Norway is starting to scale back its EV incentives.
France
France offers a generous ‘eco bonus’ of up to €6,000 to buyers of electric vehicles. This can be boosted by a scrappage bonus of up to €5,000 for older diesel and petrol vehicles, which amounts to a total bonus of €11,000!
Other incentives offered by the French government include exemption from registration and road tax, as well as a reduced company car tax of just €20 per year. EV drivers are also offered up to two hours of free parking in some municipalities and a 30% tax credit on home charging points.
Where in Europe offers the most EV incentives?
Brought to you by our car insurance experts.
Source
All information was obtained from the European Commission’s European Alternative Fuels Observatory and is correct as of November 2018.