Norway Finance Minister seeks ban on petrol cars from 2015

[The Straight Story]

* Norway Finance Minister seeks ban on petrol cars from 2015

* Wants electric vehicles, hybrids

* Reckons carmakers need spur to make greener models

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO, April 25 (Reuters) - A proposal to ban sales of new gasoline-powered cars in Norway from 2015 could help spur struggling carmakers to shift to greener models, Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said on Saturday.

"This is much more realistic than people think when they first hear about this proposal," she told Reuters, defending a plan by her Socialist Left Party to outlaw sales of cars that run solely on fossil fuels in six years' time.

"The financial crisis also means that a lot of those car producers that now have big problems ... know that they have to develop their technology because we also have to solve the climate criss when this financial crisis is over," she said.

"That is why we would like a ban from 2015," she said, during an exhibition in Oslo of electric and biofuel-powered cars during which she raced a red and white Mitsubishi electric car around a course against several other politicians.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/motoringAutoNews/idUKLP32181720090425

[taterguy]

1. Norway has car makers?

Honestly, I had no idea

[The Straight Story]

2. I think they are called Schwinn, and they have foot based engines

:rofl:

[NYC_SKP]

4. .

[NYC_SKP]

5. yes. nt.

[NYC_SKP]

3. Yes, there is a Norway-based car company. Think Car.

I've seen them around here in California.



Smart people, the Norwegians.

Americans, on automobile matters, not so much.

[taterguy]

6. Are Norwegians smarter than us or just in a different situation?

America has always been a land of abundant natural resources so conservation has never been a high priority.

When we started running low on stuff we'd use our existing resources to conquer new lands and get more stuff.

We're getting close to the end of the line though since it doesn't look like we'll be colonizing Mars in the near-future.

Time to change our ways but we've got 400 years of bad habits to break

[NYC_SKP]

7. There are many reasons that European cars have been historically more modest in size.

Differences in resources, geographic scale, regulations and taxes are among these.

Let's throw in lack of leadership and caving into corporations as root causes.

But so, too, are differences in our cultures and what we hold dear.

In America it has become Mc Mansions and SUVs, not so elsewhere.

We are not inherently less smart, of course, so, yes, it it situational.

Our situation has made us generally less smart about what and how we consume.