More than half of all cars sold in Norway are now electric ⋆

More than half of all cars sold in Norway are now electric

Norway became the first country in the world to have more than half of new vehicle registrations in the past 2020 for electric or hybrid vehicles claims new data from the country’s Road Federation. More about electric cars in Norway below.

Reuters is reporting that, across 2020, EVs made up 54 percent of all new car sales, a figure that jumps even higher if you include plug-in and hybrid vehicles as well. The statistics show “pure” petrol and diesel vehicles constituted just eight and nine percent of all cars sold in the country last year.

In 2019, the share of new cars sold with zero emissions of harmful substances amounted to 49.4 percent, and in 2020 – already 54.3 percent.

The best-selling models in 2020 were the Audi e-tron, Tesla Model 3, Volkswagen ID.3, Nissan Leaf, and the hybrid version of the Volkswagen Golf.

The kingdom is considered a pioneer in the promotion of electric vehicles. The boom in electromobility is driven by government incentives. In particular, such models are not subject to a number of taxes, which allows keeping prices at the level of gasoline and diesel analogues. Norway intends to completely abandon the sale of new cars with an internal combustion engine from 2025 .

Norway, which is the largest crude oil producer in western Europe, has been using tax breaks to increase sales of electric cars for decades. Oil revenue helped build the country’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund, which is now embracing renewable energy and dumping oil and gas stocks.

The incentives make most electric vehicle models cheaper to buy than similar petrol models, according to the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association.

Buyers enjoy other incentives including use of bus lanes, and reduced fees on state ferries and toll roads.

The country has 10,000 publicly available charging points, according to the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association.