“We have no chance of achieving the 100 percent target for light electric van sales by 2025,” says Christina Bu, Secretary General of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association (Norsk ebilforening).
In this regard, the association proposes to abandon the current target and commit to a new climate target.
It is worth noting that in 2023, only 29 percent of vans sold were electric.
“Politicians are forgetting about vans,” says Bu, who has several proposals for measures to get more of these vehicles on the roads.
“For better air quality, less noise, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the electrification of commercial units should have been much higher on the agenda,” she adds.
Norsk ebilforening proposes to accelerate the climate target for heavier vans. In this case, the Storting’s target is for them to be emissions-free by 2030.
“Therefore, a new climate target should be applied to all new vans, both heavy and light, and sales of new cars for these commercial vehicles should be emissions-free by 2027,” the statement says.
The fact is that in the Norwegian car park, up to 15 percent are vans, but they represent up to 27 percent of CO2 emissions.
Emissions have been steadily increasing, as there are half a million of these vehicles.
Therefore, the desire and advice that Norsk ebilforening gives to the Storting is to merge the climate targets for light and heavy vans and set a general target for these vehicles until 2027.
“Reaching this goal may also be challenging, but it is important, as without the electrification of many commercial vehicles, we cannot achieve the necessary emissions reduction,” comments the Secretary General.
The Storting should adopt the new climate target for vans when addressing the National Transport Plan in spring.
“Then, they must hurry to implement measures to ensure that companies find it beneficial to choose emissions-free economics,” Bu concludes.
