Transport is a necessary activity in all societies. Transport binds countries and regions together, giving people access to various activities and aspects of social welfare, as well as making goods and services from the business community and public institutions available to users. At the same time, transportation can produce considerable challenges to the environment and the climate. The transport sector (domestic transportation of people and goods) accounts for almost 30% of the total national Norwegian greenhouse gas emissions of 53.4 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents. (http://www.ssb.no/natur and environmental data/statistics/ greenhouse gas). The proportion for the transport sector varies slightly according to the assumptions of the calculations. While the National Transport Plan (NTP 2014- 2023) defines the transport sector share as 25.5% of total emissions in 2011 (Ministry of Transport 2013), the figures provided by Statistics Norway for 2012, which also include mobile machinery, indicate a percentage of 33% (ibid). Most of this — 10.1 million tonnes of CO 2 equivalents — come from road traffic (Ministry of Transportation 2013). To deal with this, a number of different types of measures or packages of measures will be required. It is not only necessary to reduce the need for transportation, but also to influence the distribution of transportation, so that people and goods are transported in the environmentally best way possible, ensuring that the means of transportation uses the best environmental technology possible, e.g. the electrification of the vehicle fleet. If petrol and diesel cars are replaced by Electric vehicles, there can be substantial savings made in energy consumption and emission of the greenhouse gases. There is zero emissions of hazardous exhaust gases from Electric vehicles, and from Plug-in Hybrid vehicles when these are run on electrical energy stored in the batteries. Electricity production is covered by the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) for CO2. This means that when an Electric car replaces a car with an internal combustion engine, the emission is moved over to a CO2-quota-regulated sector. The increased consumption of electric power would then be compensated for by other measures in quota-regulated sectors. The total available CO2-quotas in the market, has a ceiling and the number of quotas on the market is thus fixed. Given that the quota system works as intended, in the long term it will lead to a gradual decarbonisation of average energy production in the European Union. Electrification is an important factor when attempting to reach the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and local pollution. For example, Figenbaum et al. (2013) show that not only Norwegian, but also European climatic goals for average emissions from new cars, can be reached with increased electro-mobility. Development is quick and an assessment of experiences and consequences for individuals, businesses, and communities is important. Norway is currently at the forefront in terms of electro-mobility and consequently possesses experience that can be shared. This is the background to this report summarising the Norwegian experience with electrification. In order to achieve the other environmental and transport policy goals of restricting the growth of traffic in cities and reducing land use and congestion problems, measures other than electrification are required. Such measures are not dealt with in this report. The main theme of the report centres on the Norwegian experiences with, and the development of, the Electric car market in Norway. To illustrate the significance of various policy instruments with respect to the development of the market, we have made a number of comparisons with other European countries. For the same reason, we have also taken a special look at the situation in Akershus, which is the county in Norway that has historically had the highest number of Electric vehicle users. The potential for electro-mobility can be substantial in a number of different market groups, both private and public. BISEK in Sweden, which is one of the clients financing this study, is working with the social and economic significance of vehicles, and is particularly concerned with what different strategies for environmental transport could mean for individuals and households. Consequently, we are primarily looking at privately owned vehicles in this report. It is in this segment we find most Electric vehicles (76%) in Norway today (www.gronnbil.no). In some parts of the report, we have included data on the use of Electric vehicles in commercial transport and the public sector, and assessments from businesses. Furthermore, we are primarily looking at pure Electric vehicles; this constitutes the largest Electric vehicle market in Norway and it provides the most available material. Where there is knowledge of assessments and facts about usage, we have also included data about Plug in Hybrid cars. We have also included some Norwegian data on electric bicycles and electric scooters, which constitute a growing market in several countries. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting