Norway became the first country in the world where the sale of electric cars has overtaken those powered by petrol, diesel and hybrid engines last year, with the German carmaker Volkswagen replacing Tesla as the top battery-vehicle producer, data shows.
Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) made up 54.3% of all new cars sold in the Nordic country in 2020, a global record, up from 42.4% in 2019 and from a mere 1% of the overall market a decade ago, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said.
Seeking to become the first nation to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2025, oil-producing Norway exempts fully electric vehicles from taxes imposed on those relying on fossil fuels.
The policy has turned the country’s car market into a laboratory for carmakers seeking a path to a future without internal combustion engines, vaulting new brands and models to the top of bestseller lists in recent years.
While the sale of BEVs had broken the 50% mark in individual months, 2020 was the first time that fully electric cars outsold the combined volume of models containing internal combustion engines for a year as a whole.
In this Super Bowl commercial, GM and Will Ferrell want to challenge America to out-EV Norway. Then they have a long way to go. Norway is the first country in the world with over 50% of its new cars being electric because of good incentives. In USA the percent is only slightly more than 1 %.
The fleet of plug-in electric vehicles in Norway is the largest per capita in the world, with Oslo recognized as the EV capital of the world.
As of July 2016, the market concentration was 21.5 registered plug-in cars per 1,000 people, 14.2 times higher than the U.S., the world’s largest country market. Norway’s fleet of electric cars is one of the cleanest in the world because 98% of the electricity generated in the country comes from hydropower. In March 2014, Norway became the first country where over one in every 100 passenger cars on the roads is a plug-in electric, and the segment’s market penetration passed 3% in December 2015.
The stock of light-duty plug-in electric vehicles registered in Norway totaled 121,330 units at the end of September 2016, making the country the fourth largest plug-in market in the world after the U.S., China and Japan. As of September 2016, the Norwegian fleet of plug-in electric vehicles consist of 92,813 all-electric passenger cars, 26,225 plug-in hybrids, and 2,292 all-electric vans. The total stock includes more than 14,000 used imported electric cars from neighboring countries. The Norwegian plug-in electric vehicle market share of new car sales has been the highest in the world for several years, reaching 22.4% in 2015, up from 13.8% in 2014. The highest-ever monthly market share for plug-in electric segment was achieved in March 2016 with one in three passenger cars registered being a plug-in electric car (33.5%). Registrations of light-duty plug-in electric vehicles in Norway passed the 100,000 unit milestone in April 2016. Norway is the largest European market for both the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S.
Among the existing government incentives, all-electric cars and vans are exempt in Norway from all non-recurring vehicle fees, including purchase taxes, and 25% VAT on purchase, together making electric car purchase price competitive with conventional cars. Also, the government approved a tax reduction for plug-in hybrids in effect starting in July 2013.
