EnergyPortal.eu

Home Latest Energy Savings News Better Place downsizes Danish EV market expectations

Better Place downsizes Danish EV market expectations

Thursday, 05 August 2010 16:45

Image: www.freeimages.co.uk

By any reckoning, that's a big reduction. But is it simply a correction of over-enthusiastic forecasting by Better Place, or could there be other associated factors that are dampening expectations?

A tour around the capital, or to cities further afield, evidences that Denmark is not exactly bristling with impending EV infrastructure to encourage the world's auto manufacturers to market their EVs here. Ingeniøren notes that despite various agreements forged by Better Place with municipalities around the country, not a single battery shift station (a core element in the Better Place concept) has been set up, nor was one shown at COP15 when Denmark hosted the highest-profile UN climate change conference the world has yet seen.

And although the government has extended registration tax exemption for EVs by three years to 2015, there were concerns as to whether the decision was too slow in coming to keep potentially big players like China's BYD committed to using Denmark as a European launch pad.

Back in March 2008 when Better Place made its announcement, partner Nissan was in the vanguard of auto manufacturers set to take a slice of Denmark's coming EV market. But as Ingeniøren writes in its article, Nissan has a visibly cooler stance now. The company, which is launching its first EV range this autumn, has gone into reverse where Denmark is concerned, and seems no longer to view it as a launch country. Denmark is lagging too far behind regarding infrastructural decisions, Nissan says.

Source: Denmark.dk