Swedish capital’s plan is more aggressive than other European cities’ approach, which only forbids diesel cars, or charges high-polluting vehicles
https://www.carscoops.com/author/chris-chilton-cc/
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by Chris Chilton
October 10, 2023 at 11:30
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No region in the world has a harder line on auto pollution than Scandinavia. Following Norway’s decision to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2025 – an entire decade before similar EU and California legislation comes into force – fellow Scandi country Sweden is reported to be banning ICE vehicles from the streets of its capital.
The country’s SVT news website says the city is poised to bar access to combustion-engined vehicles to 20 blocks in Stockholm’s finance and shopping districts. The only vehicles allowed into the area will be electric cars, hybrid trucks, and fuel-cell-powered vehicles, SVT reports.
If Stockholm does announce such a plan tomorrow, that would make it the first major capital city to show zero mercy to ICE vehicles. Other cities around the world have introduced some measures to reduce pollution, but none go as far. Paris, Athens, and Madrid have plans to stop diesel cars from entering their centers, and London has recently extended its low-emissions zone, but drivers can still enter the area if they’re willing to pay. Brussels has banned non-essential and non-local traffic, but only on a handful of streets.
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“We want to create a better living environment for the people who live and work here,” local lawmaker Lars Stromgren, who’s responsible for traffic policy, told SVT, according to a report by Bloomberg, which questions whether the move will have much impact on EV sales in the country. It says Mobility Sweden was forced to cut its forecast on EV sales during 2023 from 40 to (a still healthy) 35 percent as buyers struggling with the cost of living opt not to buy new electric vehicles.
Stockholm’s plan might seem radical in 2023, but only a fool would bet against every major Western city following its lead in the next 15 or 20 years or the scope of the schemes widening to include other cities and towns in every developed country in the years that follow. So that idea that a ban on new ICE sales won’t affect you because you’ll keep running that E46 M3 until you’re too old to drive, won’t work, and conversely, we can expect to see even more EV conversions on older cars, if only to prevent them becoming garage furniture.
