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Denmark announces plan to put 775,000 electric cars on roads by 2030

Ritzau/The Local
Ritzau/The Local - [email protected]
Denmark announces plan to put 775,000 electric cars on roads by 2030
Photo: Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix

Denmark’s government has announced a political deal which it estimates will increase electric and hybrid car ownership to 775,000 by 2030.

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The agreement, between the governing Social Democrats and allied minority parties, was confirmed by the Ministry of Finance on Friday.

Although the overall ambition in relation to green cars is to increase their numbers on Danish roads to one million, a budget is now secured for 775,000, the agreement states.

“This will be a completely decisive reorganisation of road transport so we can take very important steps towards realising climate goals for 2030. The agreement takes us a big step forwards,” finance minister Nicolai Wammen said in at a press briefing.

Denmark aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent within 10 years.

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“We have an ambition to see a million green cars driving around in Denmark in 2030. We are starting by setting aside finance for 775,000 cars. That reduces CO2 emissions by two million tonnes,” Wammen said.

The government originally put forward a plan to secure 500,000 electric cars within the next ten years, but that number was pushed upwards during negotiations with the left wing support parties.

The opposition Liberal and Conservative parties were also involved in the negotiations until the later stages, but withdrew. The primary criticism of the two parties was the agreement’s increase in taxes and costs on motorists who still drive traditionally-powered cars.

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“We want more green cars… but we don’t want Danes to pay more for their cars,” Conservative business spokesperson Mona Juul said.

“It’s rather expensive to buy a car in Denmark as it is. There are a huge number of fees and taxes and so we don’t think a bill worth billions should be sent to people with completely normal cars,” Juul added.

Specific details of the deal’s budget are yet to be published at the time of writing.

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