Electric car sales triple in Sweden
Sales of electric cars have tripled during the first half of 2015 when compared to the same period last year, Swedish Radio News reports, though the actual number of sales remains minuscule.
Sweden sold 1,533 electric cars during the first six months of this year. That figure represents less than 1 percent of all cars newly registered nationwide during the same time period.
More expensive
Bertil Moldén, CEO of Bil Sweden, a trade group that represents car manufacturers and importers, said one reason for the small market share is that an electric car is much more expensive than a regular car. An electric car can cost SEK 150,000 to 200,000 more than a normal gas-powered vehicle.
He said the government should do more to encourage buyers to get behind an electric vehicle.
“Norway is number one in the world, Holland is number two, and then there are some states in the US, such as California, which is very far ahead,” he told Radio Sweden. “But we could be much further ahead if the government and the politicians handled this in a trustworthy way.”
In Norway, for example, 13,659 electric cars were sold there in the first half of 2015, nearly 9 times more than in Sweden.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Driving on the ice road in Canada’s Northwest Territories, Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Radical road tax changes proposed, Yle News
Norway: Norway reaches 50,000 electric cars sales, Radio Sweden
Sweden: Weak sales of electric cars and hybrids in Sweden, Radio Sweden
United States: High temperatures sink vehicles traveling ice roads in Western Alaska, Alaska Dispatch New
thanks keep it up