Norway is the world leader when it comes to sales of electric cars, which accounted for nine out of 10 new vehicles sold in the country last year. Can other nations learn from it?
For more than 75 years, the Oslo-based car dealership Harald A Møller imported Volkswagens, but at the beginning of 2024, it said goodbye to fossil fuel cars.
Now all passenger vehicles for sale in the showroom are electric (EV).
“We don’t think it’s right to advise a customer who comes here today to buy an ICE [internal combustion engine] car, because the future is electric,” says CEO Ulf Tore Hekneby as he tours the cars on display. “Long range, high charging speed. It’s hard to come back.”
On the streets of Norway’s capital, Oslo, battery-powered cars are not new, they are 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 the verge of becoming the first to phase out sales of new fossil fuel cars.
Last year, there were more electric cars on Norwegian roads than gasoline ones for the first time. When diesel vehicles are included, electric cars make up almost a third of all on Norwegian roads.
And 88.9% of new cars sold in the country last year were EV, compared to 82.4% in 2023, data from the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) showed.
In some months, sales of all-electric cars were as high as 98%, as purchases of new gasoline or diesel cars almost collapsed.
In contrast, in the UK, electric cars do only 20% new car registrations in 2024. Although this was a record number and an increase from 16.5% in 2023.
In the USA, that number was only 8% last year, compared to 7.6%.
Norway is undoubtedly a pioneer in electric vehicles, but this electric revolution has been three decades in the making.
“It already started in the early 1990s,” says Christina Bu, secretary general of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, as she takes me for a drive around Oslo in an electric minivan.
“Little by little, they are taxing cars with petrol and diesel engines more and more, so they have become much more expensive to buy, while electric cars are tax-free.”
Support for electric vehicles was first introduced to help two early Norwegian electric vehicle manufacturers, Buddy (formerly Kewet) and TH!NK City. Although they have been phased out, the incentives for greener vehicles remain.
“Our goal is to see that choosing zero emissions is always a good and sustainable choice,” says Norway’s Deputy Minister of Transport, Cecilie Knibe Kroglund.
Although a major oil and gas producer, Norway aims for all new cars sold to be “zero emission”, starting at some point in 2025. The non-binding target was set back in 2017, and that milestone is now within reach.
“We are approaching the goal and I think we will achieve that goal,” adds Kroglund. “I think we’ve already made the transition for passenger cars.”
The key to Norway’s success was long-term and predictable policies, she explains.
Instead of banning vehicles with internal combustion engines, the government directed consumer choices. In addition to penalizing fossil fuel vehicles with higher taxes and registration fees, VAT and import duties have been abolished for low-emission cars.
Then came a series of benefits, such as free parking, reduced tolls and access to bus lanes.
In comparison, the European Union plans to ban the sale of new fossil fuel cars by 2035, and the current UK government wants ban their sale in 2030.
The sale of petrol and diesel cars is still allowed in Norway. But few decide to buy them.
For many locals, like Ståle Fyen, who bought his first electric vehicle 15 months ago, going electric made economic sense.
“With all the incentives we have in Norway, no tax on electric vehicles, it was very important for us money-wise,” he says as he plugs in his car at a charging station in the capital.
“In the cold, the range is maybe 20% shorter, but still, with the expansive charging network we have here in Norway, it’s not really a big problem,” adds Mr Fyen. “You just have to change your mindset and charge when you can, not when you need to.”
Another driver, Merete Eggesbø, says that back in 2014, she was one of the first Norwegians to own a Tesla. “I really wanted a car that didn’t pollute. It gave me a better conscience when I was driving.”
At Norwegian gas stations, many fuel pumps have been replaced by fast charging stations, and there are now more than 27,000 public filling stations across Norway.
This compares with 73,699 in the UK – a country 12 times larger in terms of population.
This means that, per 100,000 people, Norway has 447 chargers while the UK only has 89. according to a recent report.
Tesla, VW and Toyota were the best-selling electric vehicle brands in Norway last year. Meanwhile, Chinese-owned brands – such as MG, BYD, Polestar and XPeng – now make up a combined 10% of the market, according to the Norwegian Road Federation.
Norway, unlike the USA and the EU, has not introduced tariffs on the import of Chinese electric vehicles.
Ms Bu says there is “actually no reason why other countries can’t copy Norway”. However, she adds that “it’s all about doing it in a way that can work in every country or market.”
Norwegians are no more ecologically oriented than people elsewhere, she believes. “I don’t think the green mindset has much to do with it. It has to do with strong policies and people gradually realizing that driving electric cars is possible.”
However, Norway is also a very wealthy nation, with a sovereign wealth fund worth more than $1.7 trillion (£1.3 trillion) thanks to huge oil and gas exports. This means it can more easily afford large infrastructure construction projects and absorb the loss of tax revenue from the sale of petrol and diesel cars and their fuel.
The county also has an abundance of renewable hydroelectric energy, which represents 88% of its production capacity.
“A third of cars are now electric, and in a few years it will exceed 50%,” says Kjell Werner Johansen of the Norwegian Center for Transport Research. “I think the government accepts that a few new petrol or hybrid cars will still be on the market, but I don’t know anyone who wants to buy a diesel car these days.”
