An column by Eric Reguly in the Globe:
Norway's electric cars subsidies: a lot of money, not a lot of gain
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-norways-electric
-car-subsidies-a-lot-of-money-for-not-a-lot-of-gain/
Like many countries in the West, Norway, an oil exporter, wanted to clean up
its act. The centrepiece of that effort was the mass rollout of electric
vehicles and the results have been spectacular - some 60 per cent of new car
sales are EVs.
That's the good news. The bad is that the sales of those EVs has come at
great cost to the taxpayer, and will continue to do so as Norway pursues an
all-EV fleet. Those billions of dollars of subsidies might have been put to
far more effective use elsewhere in Norway's carbon-reduction effort..
Norway's lavish EV freebies have actually intensified the car culture, not
diluted it. The less glam options, such as public transportation, got buried
in the green plan..
Norway decided in the 1990s that EVs were the way to go as "global warming"
entered the everyday lexicon and the country became acutely aware that its
massive North Sea oil industry was part of the climate problem. Norway was
rich - still is - and a cynic (not me, of course) would say that EVs became
a luxury form of greenwashing for Europe's premier petro-state..
To make them affordable, the national and local governments in Norway rolled
out incentive after incentive. Here are a few of them: exemption from the
25-per-cent value-added (VAT) tax on new car purchases; exemption from
import duties; exemption from emission fees; no fuel taxes; cut-rate
insurance; and ultra-cheap or free parking, road tolls and car ferry
tickets. Many cities also gave EVs unfettered access to bus lanes..
As a climate change effort, Norway's embrace of EVs has worked, but only a
bit. Road traffic emissions fell by about 10 per cent between 2014 and 2018,
though the continued improvement in the efficiency of regular cars no doubt
helped. But what if those billions in EV subsidies over the years had been
devoted to other climate efforts, such as home insulation, the expansion of
public transport or tighter emission controls on office buildings and
factories? The drop in emissions might have been significant.
As it is, Norway's EV subsidies look like a giveaway to the auto industry,
an effort that is putting more cars on the road. Indeed, the total number of
cars has climbed in recent years, partly because it appears that most buyers
(such as my Norwegian friend) are not swapping their regular car for an EV;
the EV is an addition to the regular car. No country, no city, needs more
cars. What they need is fewer cars and credible reductions in carbon
emissions. The Norway plan, so far, has done neither - at great expense.
Transport for Greater Manchester <https://tfgm.com/> (TfGM) has announced
the rollout of 20 ‘smart junctions’ across the city. They use sensors to
detect the type of road user at junctions and allow different modes of
transport to be given priority.
Developed in collaboration with AI firm Vivacity Labs
<https://vivacitylabs.com/>, the scheme aims to accommodate and promote the
use of active travel modes such as cycling and walking, which have become
an increased priority for UK cities in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The project first went live earlier this year, but is now being scaled up
to cover 20 junctions in Manchester by the end of 2021.
Speaking after its launch, the UK’s Digital Infrastructure Minister Matt
Warman said: “Smart traffic technology is just one of the many
ground-breaking areas the government is funding to pioneer new ways for
artificial intelligence and 5G to transform our lives for the better. We’re
backing this initiative in (Greater) Manchester to improve the city’s
transport, reduce journey times, and cut pollution.”
Full article:
https://thenextweb.com/shift/2020/11/18/uk-city-launches-smart-junctions-th…
Eric Reguly opinion piece in the Globe and Mail:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-forget-electric-
vehicles-post-pandemic-cities-dont-need-them-they/
.
The hype around EVs and their offspring, self-driving e-cars, is dazzling
and relentless, and anyone who thinks they should not be part of the new
urban mix is treated as a Luddite.
Some mayors are swayed by these arguments, especially the clean-air one. The
few enlightened ones, such as Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, are not. Ms. Hidalgo
and her like see an EV for what it is - a car. Cars take up public space.
They need to be parked. They are a menace to pedestrians and bikers. They
require roads and taxpayer funds to build and maintain those roads. The
ideal city is not filled with sleek, silent, non-polluting e-cars; it is a
city devoid of cars. Yet the tech lobby, the Wall Street machine behind it
and Elon Musk, boss of Tesla, the world's most successful EV company, would
have you think that buying an e-car is the morally correct and patriotic
consumer choice. .
Local and regional governments who push EVs might not realize that doing so
commits themselves to a spending program they cannot afford. Making cities
EV friendly would require digging up streets to create a vast network of
unsightly charging stations. In a 2019 report, the International Council on
Clean Transportation estimated that installing a single direct-current,
150-kilowatt fast-charging station, with two chargers each site, would cost
more than US$38,000 in labour, materials, permits and taxes (the greater the
power level, the higher the cost). .
A 2018 report by Wood Mackenzie determined that charging 60,000 EVs
simultaneously in Texas (which has 24-million registered vehicles) could
bring down the electrical grid, assuming they were plugged into 100-kilowatt
fast chargers. To accommodate hundreds of thousands of EV, Texas would have
to build new peak-demand generating plants, probably coal burners. Cost
aside, that would be a rather pointless exercise, since EVs are supposed to
make the air cleaner. .
Cities are run by politicians and the smartest politicians stick with what
they know and what they can control. They know and can control public
transportation. Most big cities around the world have a century or more of
experience in this field. They have zero experience in building and managing
vast networks of charging stations and all the supporting infrastructure.
Public transportation will make a comeback once the COVID-19 vaccines are
rolled out. The best way to reclaim cities from cars is to invest in
subways, buses, rail and bike paths. .
Winter cycling workshop
UMCycle is hosting an online winter cycling workshop on Nov. 20.
The free workshop is aimed at both those with experience and those new to
winter biking. It will cover what to wear, what to keep in mind, and how to
get the most out of your bike mechanically.
Registration is required on EventBrite by noon on Nov. 19, and the event
will take place on Zoom at 2 p.m.
For more, see www.eventbrite.ca/e/winter-
cycling-workshop-tickets-127498249697