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Government: electric cars will be full price by 2020

Christian Wenande
October 1st, 2015


This article is more than 9 years old.

Registration tax for electric cars to be phased back in over the next four years

Electric car sales in Denmark are finally picking up after several years of ignominy thanks to better infrastructure and electric cars being exempt from the hefty registration tax. But soon the perks of driving green could go up in fumes.

As part of its national budget proposal for 2016, the government has decided to gradually bring back the registration tax for electric cars over the next four years and owners face paying the full registration tax by 2020.

The finance minister, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, has revealed that the government has decided to veto the previous government’s pledge that the registration tax would stay in place until the end of 2016.

The Finance Ministry and Tax Ministry have yet to unveil any details pertaining to the planned return of the registration tax, or a possible deduction involving batteries for electric cars.

READ MORE: Arriva going all in with BMW on electric share cars in Copenhagen

At a crossroad
But according to the Tax Ministry, a continuation of the registration tax exemption for electric cars would cost the state some 650 million kroner in 2016.

Elon Musk, the founder of the US electric car company Tesla, has blasted the government’s move.

“It’s a question of what signal the government wants to send: a signal of sustainable transportation or the opposite,” Musk told DR Nyheder.

“This is an important crossroads in history. When the tax exemption expires on January 1, it will really damage the potential for electric cars.”


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”