More than half of the new cars sold in Norway last year were fully electric. This makes it the first country where electric cars made up the lion’s share of sales.
According to the Norwegian trade association Opplysningsrådet for Veitrafikken 54.3 percent of new cars sold were fully electric. This makes the Scandinavian country the first where electric cars are more popular than cars powered by all other types of fuel combined. Norway is still well ahead of the Netherlands in that respect, although the share here too rose sharply in 2020. In the Netherlands, more than 20 percent of new cars sold were fully electric last year.
Norway has had a policy for years whereby owners of electric cars enjoy advantages over petrol or diesel cars. For example, they pay less tax and are cheaper on toll roads and ferries. They are also allowed to use bus lanes. Electricity is also relatively cheap in Norway because a lot is extracted from hydropower plants.
In 2019, 42.4 percent of all new cars in Norway were fully electric. Back then, Tesla was still the brand that sold the most electric cars. In 2020, however, Tesla has been overtaken by Volkswagen. Just like in the Netherlands, that took the lead with the new ID3.