According to Transport and Communications Minister Timo Harakka (SDP), it is possible that electric vehicle (EV) purchase subsidies will continue in one form or another – even after additional funding earmarked for them last spring has been used up.
The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) says that the funds reserved for EV purchase subsidies will likely run out in September.
The state now offers a subsidy of 2,000 euros for any consumer who buys a new fully electric passenger car costing less than 50,000 euros.
On Sunday Harakka told the Finnish News agency STT that the subsidy issue is being discussed ahead of cabinet budget negotiations in late August.
EV sales double, but still only 1.2% of cars on the road
In late July, Traficom reported that fully electric vehicles made up only 1.2 percent of passenger cars on Finnish roads, a much lower percentage than in most of Finland's Nordic neighbours.
Plug-in hybrids accounted for 3.3 percent. Altogether just over five percent of cars ran entirely or partially on electricity, hydrogen, natural/biogas or high-mixed ethanol (known as flexible-fuel vehicles), the agency said.
The number of fully electric cars has more than doubled in the past year while the number of plug-in hybrids has risen by nearly half. At the end of June, there were about 33,000 fully electric cars on the roads along with over 92,000 plug-in hybrids.
The government's energy and climate strategy calls for at least a quarter-million electric cars in Finland by 2030, plus 50,000 cars running on natural/biogas.
Harakka, a former labour minister and Yle journalist, has held the transport portfolio since late 2019. He is one of eight ministers in Prime Minister Sanna Marin's government from her Social Democratic Party.
Greens chair criticises government partners SDP over emissions
On Friday evening, Environment and Climate Minister Maria Ohisalo (Green) criticised a recent SDP proposal to increase Finland's share of European Emission Allowances within the EU Emissions Trading System.
At a meeting of the SDP parliamentary delegation in Kuopio on Wednesday, group chair Antti Lindtman called for an increase in emission rights as a means to lower the price of electricity. That would allow Finnish companies to raise their greenhouse gas emissions.
Ohisalo says that all possible options to keep electricity costs reasonable should be explored, including a price cap – but not an increase in pollution rights.
"The right to emit means the right to create more climate-warming emissions. I find it very peculiar that the Social Democrats, as the prime minister's party, want to be flexible about these climate goals in this way at this moment," she said.
Ohisalo argued that dependence on fossil fuels must be reduced and that Finland should become more self-sufficient in energy.
The Greens have proposed energy vouchers to help consumers cope with the spike in energy prices. The plan is being studied by the Ministry of Finance.
The most important thing is that the measures be aimed at those who need them the most, said Ohisalo.
The party also calls for cutting the value-added tax on public transport from the current 10 percent to four percent.
Marin's government has committed to Finland becoming carbon-neutral by 2035, which it says would make the country the world's "first fossil-free welfare society". The Greens are a junior government partner with just three cabinet seats.