Norway’s electric vehicle sales have reached a milestone, with 88.9% of new cars sold in 2024 being fully electric, reported Reuters, citing Norwegian Road Federation data.
This marks an increase from the 82.4% recorded in 2023.
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The country is on track to meet its target of having only electric cars added to the roads by 2025.
Norwegian EV association head Christina Bu was quoted by the publication as saying: “Norway will be the first country in the world to pretty much erase petrol and diesel engine cars from the new car market.”
Tesla, Volkswagen, and Toyota emerged as the top-selling brands. Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) now account for almost 10% of new car sales in the country.
Norway’s approach to encourage the adoption of EVs include exempting them from import and value-added taxes, while imposing high taxes on petrol and diesel cars.
The absence of an automaker lobby in Norway has also been an important factor, according to the report.
The European Union plans to ban sales of carbon-dioxide-emitting cars by 2035, possibly only allowing vehicles that run on captured CO2 fuels.
In Norway, fully electric now comprise more than 28% of all cars on Norway’s roads as of December, according to Norway’s Public Road Administration data.
Norway Deputy Transport Minister Cecilie Knibe Kroglund said: “That’s the big lesson: put together a broad package (of incentives) and make it predictable for (the) long-term.”
Despite the shift to electric, some internal combustion engine (ICE) cars are still being sold, primarily to rental companies catering to tourists unfamiliar with EVs.
As EVs grow on Norwegian roads, fuel stations will replace petrol pumps with fast chargers.
Circle K Norway’s largest fuel retailer senior manager Anders Kleve Svela told Reuters: “Within the next three years we will have at least as many charging stalls as we have pumps for fuel”.
He added: “In just a couple of years more than 50% of all the cars in Norway will be electric … we have to ramp up our charging park according to that.”
