With the way electric vehicle technology is moving, gasoline and diesel powered vehicles may soon become extinct, just like the dinosaurs. But one country doesn’t want to wait quite that long. The Netherlands is now joining Denmark and Norway in discussing the possibility of becoming free of vehicles reliant on carbon-based fuels.
Back on March 29 of this year, the Dutch House of Representatives passed legislation that would ban the sale of gas and diesel powered cars by 2025. The legislation still has to pass a vote in the Senate, but Representative Jan Vos, the architect of the legislation, thinks the bill will become law.
Discovery Seeker quoted Vos, who said, “We need to phase out CO2 emissions and we need to change our pattern of using fossil fuels if we want to save the Earth.” Vos realizes the ban won’t totally end the use of gas or diesel-powered vehicles because electric cars are just not affordable for most people.
But even with the affordability of electric cars a major hurdle, the Netherlands has seen a big surge in the sale of EVs this past year, with December sales reaching an all-time high. It should also be pointed out that the Netherlands has one of the lowest levels of CO2 emissions from new cars in the European Union.
On June 6 this year, Norway flirted with the idea of banning the sale of gas and diesel-powered cars in Oslo’s city center by 2019, the pending legislation got out to the media where it was proclaimed far and wide.
It turns out that the 2019 ban is not forthcoming, but “strong actions to reach target of zero new fossil-fuel cars sold as from 2025,” according to a tweet by Norwegian Climate Minister Vidar Helgesen to Craig Morris, writing in Clean Technica on June 9, 2016.
But interestingly, one of the “strong actions” taken by Norway may something the Netherlands might think about doing. To encourage the purchase of electric vehicles, the country has exempted most taxes on the cars. And according to the Independent, taxes are one-third of the sticker price.
