Norway won’t be banning the sale of gas vehicles

August 18th, 2016  |  Auto

People praised Norway when they proposed to ban the sale of gas and diesel vehicles in the country. Now, however, they deny the proposal was ever on the table.

Earlier this year, Norway’s National Transport Plan for 2018-2029 was published. It included a plan for the country to completely stop selling fossil fuel vehicles by 2025. The plan, while ambitious seemed right in line with Norway’s strong efforts in encouraging alternative fuel transportation. Replacing its fossil fuel vehicles also presents a much more reasonable challenge than a country like Canada or the U.S. where millions of vehicles are sold every year in contrast to Norway’s 150,000.

However, while going green is certainly important to Norway, they apparently have no intention of straight out banning gas cars. According to Autoblog, a spokesman for the Norwegian Transport Ministry told reporters that they want to “encourage more environmentally friendly vehicles by using the carrot instead of stick.”

That means the government is more interested in allowing people to make the decision to switch to electric cars when they want to and not because they have to.