Electric cars “overtook” gas stations in Norway

Electric cars “overtook” gas stations in Norway

For the first time in Norway, there are more electric cars on the roads than with gasoline engines, which is also the first time in the world.

Of the 2.8 million registered vehicles in the Scandinavian country, 754,303 are fully electric, and 753,905 are gasoline vehicles, the Norwegian Road Transport Agency (OFV) announced.

However, diesel-powered vehicles are still the most numerous, with almost a million copies and make up 35 percent of the total number, but their market share is also rapidly declining.

“This is historic,” announced the transport organization OFV and pointed out that “Norway is rapidly moving towards the goal of becoming the first country in the world whose vehicle fleet will be dominated by electric cars.”

Norway, paradoxically a large producer of oil and natural gas, has set itself the goal of selling only new cars with “zero emissions” of exhaust gases from 2025, that is, ten years before the European Union.

In August, fully electric cars, mostly Tesla Model Y, represented 94.3 percent of newly registered cars in Norway, which is unmatched in other European countries where e-cars are not sold well.

There is a country where almost all new cars that are registered are electric

In order to achieve the “electrification” of road vehicles, the Norwegian authorities have for decades implemented ultra-favorable taxation that makes all-electric models competitive with models with gasoline and diesel engines, which are highly taxed, but also with models with a combined, hybrid drive with gasoline and diesel engines. electric motors.

The non-payment of tolls for e-cars, free parking in public parking lots and the possibility of using traffic lanes for public transport also contributed to this success, although these measures were gradually reduced over time.

In September 2004, the Norwegian car fleet had only a thousand electric cars, reminds OFV.

Quite the opposite in Europe

The success of the Norwegian model contrasts with the situation elsewhere in Europe. Sales of electric cars in Europe have been declining since the end of 2023, and they account for only 12.5 percent of sales this year, according to data from the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA).

Their market share is expected to increase in 2025 and reach between 20 and 24 percent of the number of newly registered vehicles, according to a study by the Transport & Environment (TandE) research center.

However, some doubt the EU’s ability to completely ban vehicles with internal combustion engines in 2035, as it has promised.

In Sweden, which is a neighbor of Norway, the sale of new electric vehicles, according to the organization Mobility Sweden, declined for the first time this year, probably due to the government’s decision to cancel the subsidy for their purchase.

Source: Beta

Photo: CarVertical