Sweden to ban petrol, diesel cars in Stockholm from 2025

In a new rule to be announced on Wednesday, an area of roughly 20 blocks that crosses the financial district and major shopping thoroughfares of the Swedish capital will only permit electric cars, some hybrid trucks, and fuel-cell vehicles. In the first half of 2025, a decision regarding a zone expansion might be made. Stockholm may be the first significant city to enact such a broad ban, which goes beyond Madrid’s, Paris’, Athens’, and Athens’ proposals to outlaw diesel vehicles. Low-emission zones with daily entrance fees for vehicles with older combustion engines have been implemented in other cities, including London. Local politician Lars Stromgren, who oversees traffic regulations, told the state television, “We want to create a better living environment for the people who live and work here.” It remains to be seen if the proposal will truly increase sales of electric vehicles in Sweden. As consumers are squeezed by the country’s chronic cost-of-living issue, EV sales are faltering. Earlier this year, the group Mobility Sweden lowered its prediction for new EV registrations in 2023 from 40% to 35% of all registrations. On 10 important streets in the city’s center, Brussels banned non-essential and non-local car traffic in December. By extending its ultra low emissions zone, London completed one of the most ambitious automobile emissions regulations in the world in August. However, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak relaxed some major elements of the UK government’s green strategy last month, delaying a plan to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles until 2035 by five years. The Oslo municipal environment agency earlier this year advocated establishing a zero emission zone in the central city that would first target heavy transportation and trucks in 2025 before expanding it to vehicles in 2027 in the capital of neighboring Norway, the pathfinder on EVs.