In December, the Ministry of Transport announced that it will be requirements for zero emissions in public procurement of buses from 2024.
The decision has been brought forward by one year to speed up the green shift.
Electric buses will thus become a reality across the country, from Kautokeino to Drevsjø.
– In the work to reduce emissions, we must use several instruments, and the public sector must take the lead. That is why we are now speeding up this requirement for zero emissions in public procurement, said Transport Minister Jon-Ivar Nygård on 21 December.
At the same time, the electric buses in Oslo have almost collapsed in the winter cold.
In the oral question time in the Storting today, the transport minister is grilled about the demand for electric buses.
– We have climate targets
– Does the minister think that the new electric buses have coped well with the Norwegian winter? asks Frank Sve (Frp).
– I understand that there have been challenging days. Fortunately, it is rare for us to experience extreme cold like the last few days, says Transport Minister Jon-Ivar Nygård.
– We have climate targets to be achieved and the transport sector accounts for 1/3 of the emissions. But this should not go beyond the fact that the technology should work. Oslo municipality and Ruter must respond to this, says Nygård.
Sve also believes that the national requirements for the municipality to use electric cars in its services cause problems.
Due to cold records
– Nurses and service vehicles do not come out, but spend the working day charging. It is you who have imposed these requirements. Do you take responsibility for that?, asks Sve.
– What would not have been justifiable would have been to sit still and not take responsibility for the climate goals. But I do not accept that the premise is that this equipment does not work, says Nygård.
Range almost halved
– But that’s exactly what we see, isn’t it? People do not get the help they should have because the municipality has followed regulations from the government. This has consequences. International obligations cannot be more important than citizens getting their services, says Sve.
– When we introduce such requirements, the prerequisite is that the technology has the ability to handle it. There have been cold records in Oslo. It is too easy to say that because it is electric it does not work in the cold, says Nygård.
– A scandal
Routes have major problems maintaining the offer due to the winter weather. The bus company’s electric buses have a shorter range, and take longer to charge due to the cold. The result is a great many canceled departures and angry passengers.
On Monday, 1,000 bus departures were cancelled, and Ruter had to use old diesel buses to try to maintain the offer. Nevertheless, it was complete shutdown in the south of Oslo.
Environment and transport policy spokesperson in the Oslo Labor Party, Abdullah Alsabeehg, told Dagbladet yesterday that the municipality must consider keeping diesel buses in order to maintain the transport offer.
Leader of the Progressive Party, Sylvi Listhaug, believes that the issue of electric buses must be reversed.
– It’s a scandal. The first suggestion when you are going to buy buses is that they are adapted to the community where they will drive. And Norway is a winter country, says Listhaug.
2024-01-10 10:05:19
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