Effekten av bonus-malus-systemet på andelen nyregistrerade elbilar i Sverige

Abstract

The emission of greenhouse gases is a widespread problem around the world and a contributing factor to global warming. The transport sector, which is dominated by fossil fuels, emits a significant amount of greenhouse gases and thus contributes to global warming. Therefore, on 1 July 2018, the state reform bonus-malus was introduced with the aim of increasing the proportion of environmentally friendly vehicles and in the long run reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector. This economic instrument implies that cars that emit a maximum of 70 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer are subsidized with a bonus, while cars that emit more than 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer are sanctioned with an increased tax, malus. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the bonus side has affected the proportion of newly registered electric vehicles since the introduction of the reform. Previous studies have shown that political instruments, corresponding to the bonus-malus system, have had a positive effect on the demand for environmentally friendly vehicles. The data collected for this thesis is short panel data from Sweden's 290 municipalities for the period 2015 - 2020 and the analysis method applied is a regression analysis. In accordance with previous studies, the results of this thesis show that the proportion of newly registered electric vehicles has increased since the introduction of the bonus-malus system. It can be concluded that the bonus has a positive and significant effect on the proportion of newly registered electric vehicles in Sweden but cannot explain the full increase alone.