BBC
Like a third of Norwegian motorists, Ståle Fyen now drives an electric car
Norway leads the world in the adoption of electric cars, which last year accounted for nine out of ten new vehicles sold in the country. Can other nations learn from this?
For more than 75 years, Oslo-based car dealer Harald A Møller has been importing Volkswagens, but at the start of 2024 it said goodbye to fossil fuel cars.
From now on, all passenger vehicles on sale in its showroom are electric (EV).
“We think it is wrong to advise a customer who comes here today to buy a car with an internal combustion engine, because the future is electric,” says managing director Ulf Tore Hekneby, walking among the cars on display. “Long range and high charging speed. It’s hard to go back.”
On the streets of Oslo, the Norwegian capital, battery-powered cars are not a novelty, they are the norm. Take a look around and you’ll soon notice that almost every other car has an “E” for “electric” on their license plate.
The Nordic nation of 5.5 million has adopted electric vehicles faster than any other country and is poised to become the first to phase out the sale of new fossil fuel cars.
Last year, the number of electric cars on Norwegian roads exceeded those of gasoline cars for the first time. Including diesel vehicles, electric cars make up almost a third of all cars on Norwegian roads.
And 88.9% of new cars sold in the country last year were electric vehicles, up from 82.4% in 2023, according to data from the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV).
In some months, sales of fully electric cars reached 98%, with purchases of new gasoline or diesel cars almost fizzled out.
In contrast, in the United Kingdom, electric cars represented only 20% of new car registrations in 2024. This is, however, a record level, up from 16.5% in 2023.
In the United States, that figure was just 8% last year, down from 7.6%.
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Norway now has an extensive network of public charging stations across the country
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, general secretary of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, as she took me for a ride around Oslo in an electric minivan.
“Little by little, cars with petrol and diesel engines are being taxed more, so that they have become much more expensive to buy, while electric cars have been exempted from taxes.”
Support for electric vehicles was first introduced to help two Norwegian manufacturers of the first electric vehicles, Buddy (formerly Kewet) and TH!NK City. Although they ceased operations, the incentives for greener vehicles remained.
“Our goal is to ensure that choosing zero emissions is always a wise and viable choice,” said Norwegian Deputy Transport Minister Cecilie Knibe Kroglund.
Although it is a major oil and gas producer, Norway aims for all new cars sold to be “zero-emission”, starting in 2025. A non-binding target was set in 2017, and this target is now within reach.
“We are getting closer to the goal and I think we will achieve it,” adds Kroglund. “I think we’ve already made the transition to passenger cars.”
The key to Norway’s success is predictable, long-term policies, she explains.
Rather than banning combustion engine vehicles, the government has guided consumer choices. As well as penalizing fossil fuel vehicles with higher taxes and registration fees, VAT and import duties have been removed for low-emission cars.
A series of benefits, such as free parking, reduced road tolls and access to bus lanes, then followed.
For comparison, the European Union plans to ban the sale of new fossil fuel cars by 2035, and the current government in the United Kingdom wants to ban their sale in 2030.
Sales of gasoline and diesel cars are still permitted in Norway. But few people choose to buy them.
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Norway’s vast oil and gas exports allow it to survive without domestic tax revenues from gasoline and diesel.
For many residents, like Ståle Fyen, who bought her first electric vehicle 15 months ago, going electric made economic sense.
“With all the incentives we have in Norway, without taxes on electric vehicles, it was very important for us from a financial point of view,” he says, plugging his car into a charging station in the capital.
“In the cold, the range is maybe 20% shorter, but with the extensive charging network we have here in Norway, it’s not really a big problem,” adds Fyen. “You just need to change your mindset and recharge when you can, not when you need to.”
Another driver, Merete Eggesbø, says that in 2014 she was one of the first people in Norway to own a Tesla. “I really wanted a car that doesn’t pollute. It gives me a better conscience when driving.”
At Norwegian gas stations, many fuel pumps have been replaced by fast charging stations, and there are now more than 27,000 public charging stations throughout Norway.
This compares to 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 has only 89, according to a recent report.
Tesla, VW and Toyota were the best-selling electric vehicle brands in Norway last year. Meanwhile, Chinese brands – such as MG, BYD, Polestar and XPeng – together now account for 10% of the market, according to the Norwegian Road Federation.
Norway, unlike the US and EU, has not imposed tariffs on Chinese imports of electric vehicles.
Madame Christine
Christina Bu says Norway’s electric vehicle revolution has been three decades in the making
Bu said there was “no real reason why other countries couldn’t copy Norway.” However, she adds that it’s “about doing it in a way that can work in each country or market.”
Norwegians are no more concerned about the environment than other inhabitants, she believes. “I don’t think a green mentality has much to do with it. It has to do with strong policies and with people gradually understanding that it is possible to drive an electric car.”
Yet Norway is also a very wealthy country which, thanks to its huge oil and gas exports, has a sovereign wealth fund worth over $1.7 trillion (US$1.3 trillion). pounds sterling). This means it can more easily afford large infrastructure construction projects and absorb the loss of tax revenue from the sale of gasoline and diesel cars and their fuel.
The county also has an abundance of renewable hydroelectricity, which accounts for 88% of its generating capacity.
“A third of cars are now electric, and this figure will exceed 50% in a few years,” estimates Kjell Werner Johansen of the Norwegian Center for Transport Research. “I think the government accepts that a few new petrol or hybrid cars are still on the market, but I don’t know anyone who wants to buy a diesel car these days.”
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