Norway is on track to become the first to go all-electric

Norway is the world leader in electric car sales, accounting for nine out of 10 new cars sold in the country last year. Can other nations learn from this?

For more than 75 years, the Harald A Møller car dealership in Oslo has imported Volkswagens, but at the beginning of 2024 it will say goodbye to fossil fuel cars.

All passenger cars sold in the showroom are now electric (EV).

“We think it’s wrong to advise a buyer who comes here today to buy a car with an internal combustion engine because the future is electric,” says chief executive Ulf Tore Hekneby as he walks around the cars on display. “Long range, high charging speed. It’s hard to come back.”

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

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

Last year, the number of electric cars on Norway’s roads exceeded the number of gasoline cars for the first time. If diesel vehicles are taken into account, electric vehicles make up almost a third of all on Norwegian roads.

And last year, 88.9% of new cars were sold in the country there were electric cars compared to 82.4% in 2023, data from the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) showed.

In some months, sales of all-electric cars have reached 98%, as purchases of new gasoline and diesel cars have almost run out.

By contrast, electric cars are being built in the UK only 20% registrations of new cars in 2024. Although this was a record figure and increased from 16.5% in 2023.

In the USA, this indicator 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 started back in the early 1990s,” says Kristina Boo, secretary general of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, as she drives me around Oslo in an electric minivan.

“Gradually, the taxes on cars with petrol and diesel engines became much more expensive, while electric cars were exempted from taxes.”

Support for electric vehicles was first introduced to help two of Norway’s first electric vehicle manufacturers, Buddy (formerly Kewet) and TH!NK City. Even though they went out of business, the incentives for greener cars remained.

“Our goal is to make sure that it’s always a good and viable choice, to choose zero emissions,” says Norway’s Deputy Transport Minister Cecilie Knibe Kroglund.

Although Norway is a major producer of oil and gas, Norway aims to make all new cars sold “net zero” starting at some point in 2025. The optional goal was set back in 2017, and the milestone is now within reach.

“We’re getting close to our goal, and I think we’ll reach it,” Kroglund adds. “I think we have already made the transition to passenger cars.”

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

Instead of banning combustion engine cars, the government guided consumer choice. In addition to penalizing fossil fuel vehicles with higher taxes and registration fees, VAT and import duties were abolished for low-emission vehicles.

This was followed by a series of benefits such as free parking, reduced tolls and access to bus lanes.

In comparison, the European Union plans to ban sales 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 people decide to buy them.

For many locals, such as Stahl Fjen, who bought his first electric car 15 months ago, going electric made economic sense.

“With all the incentives we have in Norway, no taxes on electric cars, it was very important for us in terms of money,” he says, plugging his car into the grid at a charging station in the capital.

“In the cold, the range is maybe 20% less, but still with the extensive charging network we have here in Norway, it’s not a big problem,” adds Mr Fjen. “You just have to change your mindset and charge when you can, not when you have to.”

Another driver, Meret Egesbø, says that back in 2014 she was one of the first people in Norway to own a Tesla. “I really wanted a car that doesn’t pollute the environment. It gave me more conscience behind the wheel.”

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

This is compared to 73,699 in the UK – the country is 12 times larger in terms of population.

This means that there are 447 chargers per 100,000 people in Norway, compared to just 89 in the UK. 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 10% of the market, according to the Norwegian Road Federation.

Norway, unlike the USA and the EU, has not imposed a duty on the import of Chinese electric cars.

Ms Boo says there is “no reason why other countries can’t copy Norway”. Still, she adds, it’s “all about making it so that it can work in every country or market.”

She believes that Norwegians are no more environmentally friendly than people in other countries. “I don’t think environmental thinking has much to do with it. This is due to strong policies and the fact that people are gradually realizing that it is possible to drive an electric car.”

However, Norway is also a very wealthy country, with a sovereign wealth fund of more than $1.7 trillion (£1.3 trillion) thanks to its huge oil and gas exports. This means it can more easily afford major infrastructure projects and cover the loss of tax revenue from the sale of petrol and diesel cars and their fuel.

The county also has an abundance of renewable hydroelectricity, which amounts to 88% of production capacity.

“Now a third of cars are electric, and in a few years that number will exceed 50%,” says Kjell Werner Johansen of the Norwegian Center for Transport Research. “I think the government accepts that there will still be a few new petrol or hybrid cars on the market, but I don’t know anyone who wants to buy a diesel car these days.”