Norway: electric cars outnumber petrol for first time in ‘historic milestone’

Electric cars now outnumber petrol cars in Norway for the first time, an industry organisation has said, a world first that puts the country on track towards taking fossil fuel vehicles off the road.

Of the 2.8m private cars registered in the Nordic country, 754,303 are all-electric, against 753,905 that run on petrol, the Norwegian road federation (OFV) said in a statement.

Diesel models remain the most numerous at just under 1m, but their sales are falling rapidly.

“This is historic. A milestone few saw coming 10 years ago,” said OFV director Øyvind Solberg Thorsen.

“The electrification of the fleet of passenger cars is going quickly, and Norway is thereby rapidly moving towards becoming the first country in the world with a passenger car fleet dominated by electric cars.”

Norway, paradoxically a major oil and gas producer, has set a target for all new cars being sold to be zero emission vehicles – mostly EVs since the share of hydrogen cars is so small – by 2025, 10 years ahead of the EU’s goal.

In August, all-electric vehicles made up a record 94.3% of new car registrations in Norway, boosted by sales of the Tesla Model Y.

In a bid to electrify road transport to help meet Norway’s climate commitments, Norwegian authorities have offered generous tax rebates on EVs, making them competitively priced compared with fuel, diesel and hybrid cars.

Norway’s EV success is in sharp contrast to struggles seen elsewhere in Europe.

Electric car sales began falling at the end of 2023, and now account for just 12.5% of new cars sold on the continent.