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

Norway is a world leader when it comes to the uptake of electric cars, which last year accounted for nine out of 10 new vehicles sold in the country. Can other nations learn from it?

For more than 75 years, Oslo-based car dealership Harald A Møller has been importing Volkswagens, but in early 2024. says goodbye to fossil fuel cars.

All passenger vehicles for sale in its showroom are now electric (EV).

“We think it's wrong to advise a customer coming here today to buy an ICE (internal combustion engine) car because the future is electric,” says chief executive Wolf Tore Hackneby as he tours the cars on display. “Long distances, high charging speed. It's hard to go back.”

On the streets of the Norwegian 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 Scandinavian nation 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 cars.

Last year, the number of electric cars on Norway's roads exceeded those powered by gasoline for the first time. When diesel vehicles are included, electric cars account for almost a third of all on Norwegian roads.

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

In some months, sales of all-electric cars reached 98%, as purchases of new gasoline or diesel cars almost disappeared.

In contrast, in the UK electric cars make up only 20% of new car registrations in 2024. Although this was a record high and a 16.5% increase in 2023.

In the US, the figure was only 8% last year compared to 7.6%.

Norway is undoubtedly a pioneer in electric cars, 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 EV Association, as she shows me around Oslo in an electric minivan.

“Little by little the taxation of cars with petrol and diesel engines got higher and higher, so they became much more expensive to buy, while electric cars were tax-free.”

Electric vehicle support was first introduced to help two early Norwegian EV manufacturers, Buddy (formerly Kewet) and TH!NK City. While they went out of business, the incentives for greener vehicles remained.

“Our aim is to see that it is always a good and viable choice to choose zero emissions,” says Norway's Deputy Transport Minister Cecilie Knibe Kroglund.

Despite being a major producer of oil and gas, Norway aims for all new cars sold to be “zero emissions” starting sometime in 2025. A non-binding target was set back in 2017. and that milestone is now at hand.

“We are getting close 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 long-term and predictable policies, she explains.

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

A series of benefits followed, such as free parking, reduced tolls and access to bus lanes.

By comparison, the European Union plans to ban sales of new fossil fuel cars by 2035, and the current UK government wants to ban their sale in 2030.

Sales of petrol and diesel cars are still allowed in Norway. However, few decide to buy them.

For many locals, like Ståle Fyen, who bought his first EV 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 from a money point of view,” he says as he plugs his car into a charging station in the capital.

“In the cold the range is maybe 20% shorter, but even so, with the extensive charging network we have here in Norway, it's really not 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 Egesbø, says that in 2014 was one of the first people in Norway to own a Tesla. “I really wanted a car that doesn't pollute. It gave me a greater conscience when driving.'

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

This compares with 73,699 in the UK – a country 12 times larger in population.

This means that per 100,000 people, Norway has 447 chargers, while the UK has just 89. according to a recent report.

Tesla, VW and Toyota were the best-selling EV brands in Norway last year. Meanwhile, Chinese 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 US and the EU, has not imposed tariffs on imports of Chinese electric cars.

Ms Boo says “there's really no reason why other countries can't copy Norway”. However, she adds, “it's all about doing it in a way that can work in any country or market.”

Norwegians are no more environmentally minded than people elsewhere, she believes. “I don't think environmental thinking has much to do with it. It is linked to strong policies and people are gradually realizing that driving an electric car is possible.”

Yet Norway is also a very wealthy nation that, thanks to its huge oil and gas exports, has a sovereign wealth fund worth more than $1.7 trillion (£1.3 trillion). This means it can more easily afford major infrastructure 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 power, which represents 88% of its production capacity.

“One third of cars are now electric and it will exceed 50% in a few years,” says Kel 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.”