The end of the year places Norway as Outstanding student in the energy transition, at least as far as mobility is concerned. 79.8% of the cars sold in this country in 2022 were electric models and practically all were plug-in cars.
All those included in the list of the ten best-selling models are electric and the sales leader is Tesla, with 12.2% of the total. The most purchased car of the year was the Tesla Model Y, with 17,356 units and which becomes the best selling car in just one year of Norwegian history.
These figures allow the Oslo government to consider the objective of stopping selling cars with combustion engines by 2025 and boasting of the energy transition among European partners to be feasible, but it can also be said that if Norwegian consumers opt so massively for electric cars it is because the Tax advantages are also being massive.
Hybrid and electric cars are exempt from VAT, which for other vehicles is 25%, in addition to being freed from the CO2 emissions tax. Hence, buyers opt for the tax-free electric model in the majority.
Last year, the percentage of electric cars sold was already 65% and the Norwegian State began to resent the indirect consequence: it stopped collecting 1,800 million euros, which, however, it is willing to recover.
After the renewal of a large part of the mobile fleet for electric models, the taxation of these vehicles has already begun to change at high speed in Norway. To begin with, a new rate linked to the weight of each car has already been introduced, which affects them in a special way.
Electric vehicles with batteries greater than 70 kWh weigh more than 2,500 kilos and the rate has been designed linearly, so that only the first 500 kilos will be exempt, while the rest will pay at the rate of 12.5 Norwegian crowns per kilo. and year, about 1.20 euros per kilo. And vehicles with a price higher than 500,000 Norwegian crowns, which in exchange are more than 47,000 euros, will pay VAT from 2023, so their price will increase by 25%.