2020 Tesla Model Y Long Range on 2040-cars

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How Norway became a world leader in EV sales, and where it goes from here

OSLO, Norway — A silent revolution has transformed driving in Norway. Eerily quiet vehicles are ubiquitous on the fjord-side roads and mountain passes of this wealthy European nation of 5.3 million. Some 30 percent of all new cars sport plug-in cables rather than gasoline tanks, compared with 2 percent across Europe overall and 1-2 percent in the U.S. As countries around the world — including China, the world's biggest auto market — try to encourage more people to buy electric cars to fight climate change, Norway's success has one key driver: the government. It offered big subsidies and perks that it is now due to phase out, but only so long as electric cars remain attractive to buy compared with traditional ones. "It should always be cheaper to have a zero emissions car than a regular car," says Climate and Environment Minister Ola Elvestuen, who helped push through a commitment to have only zero-emissions cars sold in Norway by 2025. The plan supports Norway's CO2 reduction targets under the 2015 Paris climate accord. To help sales, the Norwegian government waived hefty vehicle import duties and registration and sales taxes for buyers of electric cars. Owners don't have to pay road tolls, and get free use of ferries and bus lanes in congested city centers. These perks are being phased out in 2021, though any road tolls and fees would be limited to half of what gasoline car owners must pay. Gradually, subsidies for electric cars will be replaced by higher taxes on traditional cars. Registration tax on new cars is paid on a sliding scale with a premium for the amount of emissions produced. Elvestuen pledges that the incentives for electric vehicles will be adjusted in such a way that it does not scupper the 2025 target. "What is important is that our aim is not just to give incentives," he says. "It is that we are taxing emissions from regular cars." Using taxes to encourage consumers to shift to cleaner energy can be tricky for a government — protests have erupted in France over a fuel tax that hurt the livelihood of poorer families, especially in rural areas where driving is often the only means of transportation. In the U.S, some would like to see the tax credit on EVs and hybrids eliminated while others would extend it. In this sense, Norway is an outlier. The country is very wealthy after exporting for decades the kind of fossil fuels the world is trying to wean itself off of. Incomes are higher than the rest of Europe, as are prices.

When your Tesla Model S gets stolen, fire up the app [w/video]

It's a nightmare for anyone who loves their car: you return to your parking spot, only to find it empty. You flash the lights or honk the horn with your key fob just to make sure you didn't forget where you parked, but nothing happens. What do you do? If you're a Tesla Model S owner, you get out your phone, open your Tesla app and track that baby. That's exactly what Shahin Pirani did when her Tesla went missing after visiting a friend in San Diego. Seeing that the car was nearby, she called the police as she tried to track down the car. When the cops showed up, the two thieves fled, resulting in a 20-minutes chase. Pirani watched it all go down through her app, able to track her car's location and speed throughout the pursuit. "The car was actually running at 100 mph so we figured the car was being chased by the cops." Eventually, the police were able to stop the car with spike strips and apprehend the suspects. What makes this story particularly notable is its rarity. While the car can be a thief's target, the Model S was recently named the least-stolen car in the US. With the suite of technology on board to ensure the car's security, as well as Tesla's continual over-the-air updates to fix any vulnerabilities (including to hackers), that's not totally surprising. Teals even has a feature that can shut the car down remotely in some circumstances. And after her ordeal, Pirani remains a satisfied customer, saying "After this, I'm not going to get any other car for sure." You can watch some b-roll TV news footage of the event's aftermath below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Tesla investor says selling 500,000 EVs in 2020 is totally doable

Tesla Motors may make good on chief Elon Musk's claim of selling a half-million vehicles a year by the end of the decade, Motley Fool says. Of course, the author of the Foolish report in question owns Tesla shares but, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's check out the logic. Tesla moved almost 22,500 Model S vehicles last year and it was the best-selling plug-in vehicle in the US during the fourth quarter. The company expects to sell about 35,000 this year but the rate of global sales could be double that by the end of the year. From then on out, it's all about economies of scale, with demand mushrooming overseas, costs dropping as a result of the company's slated "gigafactory" and the introduction of the $35,000-ish Model E by 2017. Add it all up, and you can get to 500,000 EVs a year, the Fool says. Late last month, Tesla disclosed details about its gigafactory, saying it will be fed by sun- and wind power, will employ about 6,500 people and will produce those half-million battery packs a year. Between the company and its partners, as much as $5 billion will be invested in the plant, which is slated to be somewhere in the southwestern US (but not in its native California). To put those projected half-million vehicles in perspective, let's look at the unquestioned champion of the green car movement for the past decade, the Toyota Prius and its many Toyota and Lexus gas-electric siblings. It's taken many years to get to this point, but Toyota can now sell about a million hybrids around the world in nine months.