Norway is about to become the first country to go fully electric

Norway leads the world in electric car consumption, last year accounting for 9/10 new cars sold in the country. Can other countries learn from it?

For more than 75 years, Oslo-based car dealership Harald A Møller has imported Volkswagens, but in early 2024 it will bid farewell to fossil fuel-powered cars.

Currently, all passenger cars sold at the company’s showroom are electric vehicles (EV).

“We think it is wrong to advise a customer who comes here today to buy ICE [internal combustion engine] cars, because the future is electric,” said chief executive Ulf Tore Hekneby as he walked around the cars on display. “High charging speed, long range. It’s hard to go back.”

On the streets of Norway’s capital Oslo, battery-powered cars are not a novelty but have become the norm. Look around and you’ll soon notice that almost every other car has an “E” for “electric” on its license plate.

The Nordic nation of 5.5 million people has adopted electric vehicles faster than any other country and is on track to become the first to phase out the sale of new fossil fuel cars.

Last year, there were more electric cars on the road in Norway than gasoline cars first time. When including diesel vehicles, electric vehicles account for nearly a third of all vehicles on the road in Norway.

And 88.9% of new cars sold domestically last year is an electric car, data from the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) shows this increasing from 82.4% in 2023.

In some months, sales of all-electric cars have been as high as 98%, as buying new gasoline or diesel cars has all but disappeared.

On the contrary, in England electric vehicles were created only 20% of new car registrations in 2024. Although this is a record high and up from 16.5% in 2023.

In the US, this number is only 8% last year, up from 7.6%.

Norway is certainly a pioneer in electric vehicles, but this electric revolution has been going on for three decades.

“It all started in the early 1990s with taking me around Oslo in an electric minivan,” said Christina Bu, general secretary of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association.

“Little by little, there is more tax on gasoline and diesel cars, so they become a lot more expensive, while electric cars are already tax-free.”

Support for electric vehicles was first introduced to support two early Norwegian electric vehicle manufacturers, Buddy (formerly Kewet) and TH!NK City. Even though they have gone out of business, their eco-friendly vehicle incentives remain.

“Our goal is to see that the zero-emissions option is always a good and viable option,” said Norwegian Deputy Minister of Transport Cecilie Knibe Kroglund.

Despite being a major oil and gas producer, Norway aims for all new cars sold to be “zero emissions”, starting some time in 2025. A non-binding target has been set in 2017 and that milestone is now within reach.

“We are getting close to the goal and I think we will achieve it,” Kroglund added. “I think we’ve made the transition to passenger cars.”

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

Instead of banning vehicles using internal combustion engines, the government has oriented consumers to choose. In addition to penalizing fossil fuel vehicles with higher taxes and registration fees, VAT and import duties were also abolished for low-emission cars.

Then there are a host of perks such as free parking, reduced tolls and access to bus lanes.

By comparison, the European Union plans to ban the sale of new cars that use fossil fuels by 2035, and the current UK government wants ban their sale by 2030.

The sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles is still allowed in Norway. But few people choose to buy them.

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

“With all the incentives we have in Norway, there is no tax on electric vehicles, that’s quite important for us in terms of money,” he said as he plugged the car in at a charging station in the capital. dollar.

“In cold weather, range can be 20% shorter, however, with the extensive charging network we have in Norway, that’s really not a big deal,” Mr. Fyen added. . “You just need to change your mindset and charge when you can, not when you need to.”

Another driver, Merete Eggesbø, said that in 2014 she was one of the first people in Norway to own a Tesla. “I really want a car that doesn’t pollute. It helps me have a better driving conscience.”

At Norwegian gas stations, many fuel pumps have been replaced by fast charging points and across Norway there are now more than 27,000 public charging stations.

This compares with 73,699 in the UK – a country with a population 12 times larger.

That means, per 100,000 people, Norway has 447 chargers while the UK has only 89, according to a recent report.

Tesla, VW and Toyota were the best-selling electric car brands in Norway last year. Meanwhile, Chinese-owned brands – such as MG, BYD, Polestar and XPeng – now account for a total of 10% of the market, according to the Norwegian Road Federation.

Norway, unlike the US and EU, has not imposed tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China.

Ms Bu said that “there’s really no reason why other countries can’t copy Norway”. However, she added that “it’s all about doing it in a way that works in each country or market”.

She believes that Norwegians are no more concerned about the environment than people elsewhere. “I don’t think green thinking has much to do with that. It has to do with strong policies and people gradually understanding that driving electric cars is possible.”

However, Norway is also a very wealthy country, thanks to its huge oil and gas exports, it has a national investment fund worth more than $1.7 trillion. This means the country can easily pay for larger infrastructure construction projects and absorb the loss of tax revenue from the sale of gasoline, diesel and fuel-powered cars.

The district also has a lot of renewable hydroelectric power sources, accounting for 88% production capacity.

“A third of cars today are electric and this number will surpass 50% in the next few years,” said Kjell Werner Johansen from the Norwegian Center for Transport Research. “I think the government accepts that some new petrol or hybrid cars will still be on the market, but I don’t know if anyone wants to buy a diesel car today.”