If it had taken almost ten years for the share of electric vehicles in the Norwegian car fleet to increase from 0 to 10%, less than three years were needed to double this proportion.
One in five cars on Norwegian roads is now electric, a proportion that has doubled in less than three years, the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association announced on Monday. The largest producer of hydrocarbons in Western Europe, Norway is also the world champion of the electric car with – by far – the largest number of vehicles circulating without emissions per inhabitant, and the largest proportion of the fleet national car.
«The snowball is rolling faster and more and more good electric car models are on Norwegian roads“, welcomed the secretary general of the association, Christina Bu, on her website. If it had taken almost ten years for the share of electric vehicles in the Norwegian car fleet to increase from 0 to 10%, a milestone reached in March 2020, less than three years were needed to double this proportion, noted the ‘association. The 30% mark could be reached within two years, she estimated. By way of comparison, electric cars represented 0.64% of the French car fleet on January 1, 2021, according to official statistics.
80% of new registrations
Arguably the most ambitious in the world, the Scandinavian country has set itself the goal that all its new cars be “zero emissions– via electric or hydrogen – from 2025. Clean cars benefit from multiple advantages: exemption from almost any tax, reduced price for urban tolls and parking in public car parks, possibility under certain conditions of use the public transport corridors…
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As a result, electric cars now represent around 80% of new registrations, especially as more and more models are available on the market. Faced with the spread of these vehicles and the enormous loss of earnings that this generates for public finances, the Norwegian authorities have however begun to trim certain advantages.
From 1 January, the exemption from VAT (at a rate of 25%) when acquiring a new electric vehicle will no longer be valid in this way except within the limit of a purchase price of 500,000 crowns ( approximately 47,000 euros), sums above this ceiling being subject to tax. This mechanism will therefore weigh on the relatively high-end segment such as Tesla or certain electric models from manufacturers such as Mercedes and Audi.