In the autumn, the government increased the limit for environmental vehicles from 60 to 70 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer. As a result, many of Volvo's charging hybrids, including several popular SUVs within the climate bonus threshold, managed.

This sees the chairman of the traffic committee, leftist Jens Holm, as an unhappy remission to the car industry.

"It is upsetting to put industry profitability before the climate, it looks like the new rules are designed for Volvo," he tells SVT.

Bigger review going on

Center Party climate policy spokesman Rickard Nordin tells SVT that the change is rooted in the January parties, as part of the budget deal. He defends the raised boundary.

- Since we will soon do a major overhaul of the system, it was reasonable to now let about the same cars qualify, to give a little more stability, he tells SVT.

The background is that the EU has introduced a new driving cycle, WLTP, for tests of different car models. It should give more realistic values ​​than the previous ones in the old NEDC driving cycle. According to WLTP, most car models have higher emissions.

The limit for the climate bonus was 60 grams of emissions per kilometer, but according to WLTP most large Volvo cars have higher values. The charge hybrids also seemed to fall outside the bonus. The car industry criticized this, and then the government raised its limit to 70 grams in the autumn. SVT: review has shown that 7 out of 11 cars that were thus "saved" as climate cars were Volvo models, including charge hybrid versions of the largest SUVs.

"The rules are relaxed"

Jens Holm thinks the environmental regulations are for pushing the industry to produce more climate-adapted cars, now it becomes quite the opposite, according to him, the car industry that is pushing politicians to loosen up the rules.

"I don't think a two-ton SUV that drives almost a liter of miles on longer distances should be counted as an environmental car," he says. I am disappointed and surprised that the Environment Party has cooled this off.

In the January agreement, the parties promised to "tighten and simplify" the bonus / malus rules. Rickard Nordin thinks that the 70 gram limit with WLTP is tough, and hardly anything the car industry likes. But the rules will be revised next year. Then it will be even tougher, says Rickard Nordin.