Since Volkswagen ruined the reputation of diesel cars with dieselgate, sales of diesel cars have plummeted, and are now down to 3 percent in Denmark.
In Denmark, diesel cars are largely extinct. At least the new ones. In fact, the latest figures show that sales now only account for 3 percent of the entire car fleet.
And in a press release, Tax Minister Rasmus Stoklund (S) even praises the Danes for not choosing diesel cars, but instead switching to electric ones.
Specifically, 75 percent of all new cars that received license plates in the first quarter ran on electricity alone. 19 percent ran on gasoline, while 3 percent were diesel cars. The rest were hybrids.
– These are very impressive figures that show that the Danes have embraced electric cars to such an extent, and that they still have an appetite for driving green.
– However, this does not mean that there is not still some way to go, because we have reached the goal of the green transition of road transport.
Minister praises Danes for not choosing diesel
– When I, together with my colleagues in the Danish Parliament, discuss the restructuring of road transport later this year, it is my goal that the electric car will also be the Danes' first choice in the future.
– And I will especially focus on small and cheap electric cars, so that the electric car becomes public property and an option for even more Danes, says the minister.
It wasn't long ago that the Minister of Taxation refused to make electric cars more expensive, even though the latest agreement on registration taxes suggests otherwise.
As recently as January, environmental economist Lars Gårn Hansen suggested that it is high time to raise car taxes again.
He believes that electric cars will now also be much more expensive for Danes to buy. He said this in an interview with the Althingi.
– This makes it possible to return to uniform taxes on electric and fossil vehicles sooner than planned.
But the government doesn't want to do that. On the contrary, more help is on the way for people in electric cars, because the government thinks it's unfair that these types of drivers have to pay. Read more about it here .
