Norway is proposing a tax that would make the owners of some model of vehicles pay for the excess weight of their cars, reports the Financial Times.
The proposed tax could hit vehicles like Tesla that weigh more than two tons. It would make owning one about $10,000 more expensive.
“This is a tax bomb. This is gambling with the whole electric vehicle market. It is a bad signal to send and will affect consumers,” Christina Bu, general secretary of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, told the newspaper.
Sixty percent of cars sold in Norway have electric engines. The country plans to sell only eco-friendly vehicles by 2025. Last month, Tesla showed the most significant improvement in sales in the country. The carmaker sold over 2,000 cars, a 136 percent growth. Traditional automakers Toyota, BMW and Volvo, posted a decline in sales.
As of July last year, Norway had 21.5 registered plug-in cars per 1,000 people, more than 14 times more than the US, then the world's largest auto market.
Andreas Halse, the environmental spokesman for the opposition Labour party, said that while electric vehicles produce no emissions, they also damage roads because of their weight.
“It is not just about emissions; there are other considerations, too, such as the use of cars versus public transport,” he added.
Critics say that electric vehicles are only popular because Norway gives enormous subsidies, which make the most expensive Tesla models about $50,000 cheaper.
According to Bu, someday Norway will tax EVs, but the current subsidies will stay at least through 2020.