Israel Wants To End New Gasoline, Diesel Cars by 2030

Israel’s Energy Ministry unveiled on Tuesday a plan to end the sale of new gasoline and diesel-powered cars by 2030 and replace them with electric vehicles (EVs) and trucks running on compressed natural gas as part of a more ambitious plan to totally cut Israel off reliance on coal, gasoline, and diesel.

The Israeli government is expected to approve by the end of this year the energy ministry’s plan for zero emission vehicles by 2030, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told Reuters on Tuesday.

The key challenge to achieving this goal is gaining a “critical mass” of electric or natural-gas-powered vehicles, the minister said, but noted that Israel would be looking to cut taxation on EVs to “almost zero,” so EVs are going to be cheaper for Israelis.

The plan is part of the broader Israeli policy unveiled earlier this year to completely stop the use of coal, gasoline, and diesel by 2030, and Israel will rely exclusively on natural gas and electricity, minister Steinitz said at the time.

One of the reasons why Israel has such bold environmental policy is that huge natural gas deposits have recently been found in its territorial waters.

“We intend to reach a situation in which Israel’s industry will be based on natural gas, and most importantly, transportation in Israel will be based on natural gas or electricity,” Steinitz said in February this year, as carried by The Times of Israel.

For EV and natural gas-powered cars, Israel expects the tipping point to come around 2025 when the energy ministry aims for around 177,000 EVs on the road, up from just a few dozen currently.

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The ministry expects owning EVs to become much cheaper after 2025, and has a target of almost 1.5 million electric cars by 2030.

In August this year, Israel’s Energy Ministry said that it is investing US$6.9 million (25 million Israeli shekels) in programs to build EV charging stations across Israel to speed EV adoption.

Several countries, including France, the UK, and Norway, are also aiming to end new diesel and gasoline car sales at various points between 2030 and 2040, while in 2017 the mayors of 12 big cities worldwide—including London, Paris, Los Angeles, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Quito, Vancouver, Mexico City, Milan, Seattle, Auckland, and Cape Town—pledged to procure only zero-emission buses from 2025 and ensure that a major area of their city is zero emission by 2030.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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