00:21Das beste ist, dass er nicht so schön ist und dass er zu schnell ist.
00:30Das ist ein finanziell helping hand to people on lower incomes in rural areas like this,
00:34where public transport is not an option.
00:37We're here in central Sweden to see how they make it work.
00:46Projekt manager Olivia Almquist is rather proud of her new electric vehicle,
00:51which replaced an unreliable 30-year-old petrol car.
00:54The mother of two says she's totally reliant on her car for everyday family life.
00:59We need a car because kindergarten is that way and work is that way
01:04and the store is that way, so it wouldn't work to use the bus.
01:10The Swedish government's electric car premium offers Olivia 120 euros a month
01:16towards her 415 euro a month leasing costs over three years.
01:20She did have her doubts about range and charging,
01:23but is now a big fan of the low running costs.
01:26I couldn't understand why people bought electric cars,
01:30because it just didn't look like it was trustworthy.
01:34Now I can't understand why not everyone is buying an electric car.
01:39The key goal of the premium is to counteract high energy costs
01:43by boosting electrification.
01:45Swedes who want to apply for the funding have to meet certain criteria.
01:49Beneficiaries should earn under 80% of the Swedish average wage
01:53and live in a rural area.
01:55Cars can be new or second-hand, leased or purchased,
01:59and should cost between 6,000 and 40,000 euros.
02:03Social worker Daniel Kaldeman chose to buy an electric car
02:06priced just below the maximum limit.
02:08He lives far from his office and drives 65,000 kilometers per year,
02:13so his fuel savings are high.
02:15Before, I paid more than 800 euros every month putting diesel in the car,
02:23and now I pay 150 euros charging this car.
02:27Daniel has five children and had low earnings last year,
02:31so he was eligible for the one-off startup bonus of 1,600 euros,
02:35as well as the monthly premium of 120 euros.
02:39Although having a zero-emission car is important,
02:41he says the financial support clinched the deal.
02:44I like being eco-friendly,
02:47and I think about not polluting the environment.
02:53So, yeah, it was a factor,
02:55but I think the main factor was economics for me.
03:02Overall, this premium aims to help over 115,000 households
03:07to move away from expensive fossil fuels.
03:10So where's the money coming from to make this happen?
03:13The majority of the funds are European,
03:15with 400 million euros from the EU's social climate fund
03:19going into the 533 million euro Swedish social climate plan
03:23that pays the premiums.
03:26The EU's social climate fund is financed by carbon taxes
03:30raised through Europe's emissions trading system.
03:33Sweden's environmental protection agency
03:36oversees the electric car scheme.
03:38Project manager Elin Hall believes the premium is hitting its target audience,
03:43who mostly buy used electric cars to replace older petrol or diesel ones.
03:48So we can see that a clear majority, nearly 90%, are used vehicles.
03:54The main objective for this is to make the green transition more fair and equitable.
04:02But we can also see that, yes, it does have an impact on the emissions.
04:08It helps reduce emissions.
04:11In a hamlet in the Swedish countryside we meet father of four, Robin Lindberg.
04:16He's well known locally for paying just 10 euros for his 12-year-old electric car
04:21once the startup bonus and monthly premium are taken into account.
04:25He sees himself as an electric car convert.
04:28I love motors, cars, boats, trucks.
04:33I was very skeptical about your cars.
04:35But now when you get the chance to test this,
04:37in general without putting in some money alone,
04:39then it was worth it to test.
04:41And I'm extremely surprised how good it is.
04:45Robin is now building a garage to help his car survive the winter.
04:50Over 20,000 people have joined him and applied for the electric car premium since it launched in March.
