Austrian Government Says EVs Will Be Allowed to Drive at Higher Speed Limits Than Gas Cars

[Adam Varga + 123]

Interesting new initiative from the Austrian government. It is set to reward electric car owners with a unique incentive. The Austrian ministerial cabinet announced that it would be adjusting the speed restrictions for electric vehicles traveling in the country’s IG-L-Hundred zone, which covers a total area of 273 miles. With the updated rules in place, owners of EVs will be allowed to travel up to 80 mph on the highway, which is 20 mph faster than their fossil fuel-powered counterparts.

This speed limit exception for electric vehicles is part of the country’s initiative to encourage the adoption of sustainable transportation. 

[BlackTortoise + 103]

This is the worst initiative I have ever heard.  Encouraging speed differences on the highways is going to lead to accidents. 

[Vlad Kovalenko + 115]

It makes no sense. A better incentive would be an EV only lane and possibly chargers installed on the side of those specially marked roads for long distance trips.
 

[Brian W + 78]

Yes, but those incentives cost money to implement. While just allowing EVs to speed is free, once you ignore all the externalities of collisions. This is a  great government initiative to increase insurance costs for EVs. 

[Stormysaga + 62]

This goverment actually has three incentives. This one about increasing the speed limit for EVs on highways is definitely the one that caught the most of our attention. The other two are initiatives for opening bus lanes to EV and promotion of free parking for EVs. 

I think the point is that EVs don't get a permanent higher speed limit. The highways in Austria are limited on 80 mph except when there is a sign of high pollution when the speed is limited to about 60 mph. Since EVs don't emit anything they can't be a subject of this limit. 

[Guillaume Albasini + 851]

Enforcing the speed limits could turn very complicated with this incentive. Some models are available in EV and fuel version and from the side of an highway it's not easy to distinguish if its the fuel or EV version.  And how to cope with the hybrid models ?

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

7 hours ago, BlackTortoise said:

This is the worst initiative I have ever heard.  Encouraging speed differences on the highways is going to lead to accidents. 

Fully agreed.  Not only is the "discrimination" mind boggling, encouraging different speeds by different cars on the same road is a sure-fire recipe for accidents.

Generally, it is safer to drive at the same relative speed as the flow of traffic.  Cars that drive much slower than the traffic flow can be just as disruptive and dangerous as the yahoos that drive much faster than the traffic flow.

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

Um, can they go that much faster than ICEs? Tesla aside.