Oslo (AFP) – Electric cars accounted for 89 percent of the new cars sold in Norway last year, a report said Thursday, pushing the country closer to reaching its goal of going fully electric by 2025. “We need only 10 percent more to reach the objective for 2025,” the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said in a statement.
Of the 128,691 new car registrations last year, 114,400 were electric, the highest share of any major national car market and up from an 82-percent share in 2023. Despite being a major oil and gas producer, Norway aims for all new cars sold to be “zero emission” starting in 2025, which is 10 years ahead of the goal set by the European Union, of which Norway is not a member.
In 2012, electric cars accounted for just 2.8 percent of sales, but they have since exploded thanks to various incentives. Electric cars were exempted from many taxes, making them competitive against heavily taxed internal combustion cars. They have also benefitted from toll exemptions, free parking in public car parks, and the use of public transport traffic lanes. While some tax breaks and incentives have been rolled back over the years, electric cars have become commonplace.
“It is crucial to maintain the incentives that favour the purchase of electric cars if the government and parliament are to achieve the goal they themselves set,” Oyvind Solberg Thorsen, director of OFV, said in a press release. Tesla is the leading electric car company in Norway, with 19 percent of the market, followed by Volkswagen, Toyota, Volvo, and BMW.
“In 2025, it will be interesting to see whether new Chinese brands and models will manage to strengthen their position among buyers,” said Thorsen.
© 2024 AFP
