According to reports, presented by the new, three-month old Danish government, Denmark will gradually get rid of tax breaks on electric cars by 2020.

The previous administration's efforts were oriented towards promoting emissions-free, environmentally-friendly electric cars with zero registration tax, which was the kind of incentive that made purchasing new EVs highly attractive. Their policy turned out to be rather fruitful – in the first eight months of 2015, Danes bought approximately 2,000 electric cars.

In Denmark, taxes on conventional passenger cars are amongst the highest ones in Europe. They are actually higher than the price of the car, adding 180% tax to the initial selling price. The new government's decision sees the 180% registration tax imposed on all passenger cars, diesel as well as electric, by 2020, when EVs will nearly triple in price.

The Danish website DR.dk calculated that Nissan Leaf, which Danes can currently purchase for 274,900 Danish kroner, will cost 352,300 kroner in 2020, while Volkswagen E-Golf's price will increase from 286,500 to 334,300 kroner.

Yet, the Danish reforms don't stop here. They don't only intend to heavily tax electric cars, they also plan to actively support diesel vehicles. Despite the recent notorious scandal with Volkswagen cheating on their NOx emissions tests, the Danish government intends to drop the pollution levy on diesel cars, which was introduced by the previous administration to reduce pollution. According to Danish Tax Ministry, Denmark expects to "save businesses an estimated 240 million kroner in 2016."

Oct. 20, 2015 Driving photo: Nissan

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