Electric vehicles have outnumbered petrol vehicles for the first time in oil-rich Norway, a world first, with diesel cars still dominating the country, putting it on track to remove fossil-fuelled vehicles from the road.
Of the 2.8 million private cars registered in Norway, 754,303 are fully electric, while 753,905 run on petrol, industry body the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said in a statement on Tuesday.
Diesel models have the highest numbers, at around one million, but their sales are declining rapidly.
“This is historic. It’s a milestone that very few people saw coming even 10 years ago,” OFV director Øyvind Solberg Thorsen said in a statement.
“The electrification of the passenger car fleet is progressing rapidly, and Norway is thus fast moving towards becoming the first country in the world whose passenger car fleet will be dominated by electric cars,” Thorsen said.
He added that the pace at which Norway’s car fleet is being renewed “suggests that in 2026 we will have more electric cars than diesel cars.”
“As far as I know, no other country in the world is in a situation” where electric vehicles outnumber petrol cars, he told AFP.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), electric vehicles will make up only 3.2 percent of the global car fleet in 2023 – 4.1 percent in France, 7.6 percent in China, 18 percent in Iceland – this data includes rechargeable hybrid cars, while the data for Norway does not.
Ironically, Norway, a major oil and gas producer, has set a goal of selling only zero-emission vehicles by 2025, 10 years ahead of the EU target. Norway is not a member of the EU.
Boosted by sales of the Tesla Model Y, all-electric vehicles accounted for a record 94.3 percent of new car registrations in Norway in August, a stark contrast to the EV-related difficulties seen elsewhere in Europe.
“We’re almost there,” said Christina Boo, head of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association.
“Now the government needs to put in a little extra effort in the 2025 budget bill (which will be presented to parliament on October 7) and resist the temptation to raise taxes on electric vehicles at the same time as raising taxes on fuel cars,” he told AFP.
In an effort to electrify road transport to help meet Norway’s climate commitments, authorities have offered generous tax breaks on electric vehicles, making them available at a competitive price compared to highly taxed fuel and diesel cars, as well as hybrid vehicles.
A number of other EV incentives – including discounts on inner city tolls, free parking and the use of mass transport lanes – have also played a part in Norway’s success, although these have been gradually withdrawn over the past few years.
Sharp contrasts from Europe
Norway has come a long way in 20 years: OFV reported that in September 2004 the country’s car fleet consisted of 1.6 million petrol cars, around 230,000 diesel cars and just 1,000 electric vehicles.
The transition to E.V.s has played a big role in Norway’s efforts to meet its climate commitments, which include reducing greenhouse gases by 55 percent by 2030 from 1990 levels.
But it is not enough.
According to official data, emissions will fall by 4.7 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year, but the drop compared to 1990 will be only 9.1 percent.
Electric cars are considered even more climate-friendly in Norway, where almost all electricity is generated by hydropower.
This success story stands in stark contrast to the situation in the rest of Europe, where electric vehicle sales are declining as hybrid models become more popular.
According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), electric car sales will begin to decline at the end of 2023, and will account for only 12.5 percent of new cars sold on the continent since the start of the year.
Their market share is expected to rise rapidly to between 20 and 24 percent of new car registrations by 2025, according to think tank Transport & Environment (T&E).
Some doubt the EU’s ability to impose a complete ban on fuel and diesel cars by 2035.
In Norway’s neighbour and EU member Sweden, sales of new electric vehicles fell for the first time this year, likely the result of a government decision to remove rebates on the purchase of electric vehicles, according to industry group Mobility Sweden.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
