Norway on track to become first country to go all-electric

Norway leads the world in the use of electric vehicles, with nine out of 10 new cars sold in the country last year being electric. Can other countries learn from this?

Oslo-based car dealer Harald A Møller has been importing Volkswagen vehicles for 75 years, but at the beginning of 2024 the company said goodbye to fossil-fuel vehicles.

All passenger cars now sold in its showrooms are electric vehicles (EVs).

“We think it would be a mistake to advise customers who come here today to buy an ICE (internal combustion engine) car because the future is electric,” CEO Ulf Tore Hekneby said during a tour of the cars on display. “The range is long and the charging speed is fast. It's hard to turn back.”

Battery-powered cars are not new but commonplace on the streets of Norway's capital, Oslo. Look around and you'll quickly notice that almost every other car has an “E” on its license plate, which stands for “electric.”

The Nordic country of 5.5 million people has adopted electric vehicles faster than any other country and is about to become the first to phase out sales of new fossil-fuel vehicles.

Last year, there were more electric cars on Norwegian roads than petrol cars first. If you include diesel vehicles, electric vehicles account for almost a third of all cars on Norwegian roads.

88.9% of new cars sold in the country last year It's an electric car, This is up from 82.4% in 2023, according to the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV).

In some months, sales of pure electric vehicles have been as high as 98%, while purchases of new petrol or diesel cars have all but disappeared.

In contrast, in the UK, electric cars are driven by only 20% New car registrations in 2024. Although this is a record high and up from 16.5% in 2023.

In the United States, this number is only 8% That's up from 7.6% last year.

Norway is undoubtedly an electric vehicle pioneer, but this electric revolution has been three decades in the making.

“It all started back in the early 1990s,” said Christina Bu, secretary-general of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, as she took me for a ride around Oslo in an electric minivan.

“Taxes on petrol and diesel engine cars are gradually increasing so they become more expensive to buy, while electric cars are exempt from tax.”

Support for electric vehicles was first introduced to help two early Norwegian electric vehicle manufacturers: Buddy (formerly Kewet) and TH!NK City. Although they are out of business, the incentives for green cars remain.

“Our goal is to ensure that choosing zero emissions is always a good and viable option,” said Cecilie Knibe Kroglund, Norway’s Deputy Minister of Transport.

Although Norway is a major oil and gas producer, it aims for all new cars sold to be “zero emission” starting sometime in 2025. A non-binding target was set in 2017 and this milestone is now within reach.

“We're getting closer and I think we're going to get there,” Kroglund added. “I think we have completed the transformation of passenger cars.”

The key to Norway's success, she explains, is long-term and predictable policies.

Instead of banning internal combustion engine vehicles, the government is guiding consumer choices. In addition to higher taxes and registration fees on fuel-burning vehicles, value-added tax and import duties on low-emission vehicles have been eliminated.

With this comes a host of benefits such as free parking, discounted road tolls and use of bus lanes.

By contrast, the EU plans to ban the sale of new fossil fuel cars by 2035, while the current UK government wants Sales banned by 2030.

Norway still allows the sale of petrol and diesel cars. But few choose to buy them.

For many locals, like Ståle Fyen, who bought his first electric car 15 months ago, going electric makes financial sense.

“Norway has various incentives and there is no tax on electric cars, which is very important for us,” he said while charging his car at a charging station in the capital.

“In cold conditions the range may be reduced by 20%, but as Norway has an extensive charging network this is not really a big issue,” Mr Fyen added. “You just have to change your mindset and recharge when you can rather than when you need to.”

Another driver, Merete Eggesbø, said that as early as 2014, she was one of the first people in Norway to own a Tesla. “I really want a car that doesn't pollute. It makes me feel more conscience while driving.”

Many fuel pumps at Norwegian service stations have been replaced by fast charging points, and there are now more than 27,000 public chargers across Norway.

This is related to UK 73,699 – A country with a population 12 times larger.

This means that Norway has 447 chargers per 100,000 people, compared with 89 in the UK. According to a recent report.

Tesla, Volkswagen and Toyota were the best-selling electric car brands in Norway last year. Meanwhile, Chinese brands such as MG, BYD, Polestar and Xpeng Motors currently hold a combined 10% market share, according to the Norwegian Road Federation.

Unlike the United States and the European Union, Norway has no tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports.

Ms Bu said there was “no reason why other countries couldn't follow Norway's lead”. However, she added, “it's all about doing it in a way that suits each country or market”.

She believes Norwegians are no more environmentally conscious than people elsewhere. “I don't think green thinking has much to do with that. It has to do with strong policy and a growing recognition that driving electric cars is possible.”

However, Norway is also a very wealthy country, with its sovereign wealth fund worth over $1.7tn (£1.3tn) due to its huge oil and gas exports. That means it can more easily afford big infrastructure projects and absorb lost tax revenue from sales of gasoline and diesel cars and their fuel.

The country also has abundant renewable hydropower, accounting for 88% of its production capacity.

“A third of cars are now electric, and within a few years that will be more than 50%,” said Kjell Werner Johansen of the Norwegian Center for Transport Research. “I think the government recognizes that there will still be some new gasoline or petrol on the market. Hybrid cars, but I don’t know anyone who wants to buy a diesel car right now.”