Norway Has No Plans To Ban Petrol And Diesel Cars

Nearly two months ago, the world wide web was abuzz with the news that Norway intended to ban the sale of all fossil-fuel based cars by 2025. Suffice it to say that the news had many excited, including Elon Musk who tweeted "What an amazingly awesome country. You guys rock!!". However, Norway is now denying the reports of the country outlawing petrol and diesel-powered cars.

Just heard that Norway will ban new sales of fuel cars in 2025. What an amazingly awesome country. You guys rock!! pic.twitter.com/uAXuBkDYuR

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2016

Deutsche Presse-Agentur, a German news agency, had first reported the upcoming ban, saying that Norway's latest National Transport Plan included plans for the ban. Interestingly, no sources were cited to back up that claim. Now a spokesman for the country's transport ministry said the country had no such plans.

He said, "This government wants to encourage more environmentally friendly vehicles by using the carrot instead of stick." The spokesman further explained that while new technology would slowly eliminate the need of fossil-fueled cars in the long term, it won't require a ban on such cars.

He goes on to highlight Norway's focus on reduction of new cars' average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to 85 grams by 2020. Referring to the latest iteration of the Norwegian National Transport Plan, he said the document included no plans of a ban and that it "included suggestions and recommendations for ambitious goals to reduce emissions from the transport sector".