Electric future, Norway on track to be first EV only

Norway is a world leader when it comes to the use of electric cars, which last year accounted for nine out of 10 new vehicles sold in the country.

Can other nations learn from it?

For more than 75 years, Oslo-based car dealer Harald A Moller has been importing Volkswagens, but at the beginning of 2024 it said goodbye to fuel-powered cars.

"We think it's wrong to advise a customer who comes here today to buy an ICE car because the future is electric," said chief executive Ulf Tore Hekneby.

It is known that on the streets of the capital of Norway, Oslo, battery-powered cars are not a novelty, they are the norm.

The Nordic nation of 5.5 million people has adopted EVs faster than any other country and is on the verge of becoming the first to phase out sales of new fuel-efficient cars.

Last year, the number of electric cars on Norway's roads exceeded the number of gasoline cars for the first time, writes with the BBC, the Telegraph reports.

While when diesel vehicles are included, electric cars make up almost a third of all on Norwegian roads.

And 88.9% of new cars sold in the country last year were EVs, up from 82.4% in 2023, data from the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) show.

In a few months, sales of fully electric cars went up to 98%, as purchases of gasoline or diesel ones almost failed.

In contrast, in the UK electric cars accounted for just 20% of new car registrations in 2024.

In the US, the figure was only 8%.

So, Norway is definitely an EV pioneer, but this electric revolution hasn't started yet.

"This already started in the 1990s," said Christina Bu, secretary general of the Norwegian EV Association.

Support for electric vehicles was originally introduced to help two early Norwegian EV manufacturers, Buddy (formerly Kewet) and TH!NK City.

In contrast, despite being a major producer of oil and gas, Norway aims for all new cars sold to be "zero emission" starting in 2025.

By comparison, the European Union plans to stop selling new fossil fuel cars by 2035 and the current UK government wants to stop selling them in 2030.

The sale of petrol and diesel cars is still allowed in Norway.

But few choose to buy them.

In Norwegian petrol stations, many fuel pumps have been replaced by fast charging points, and across Norway there are now more than 27,000 public chargers.

The best-selling cars last year were Tesla, VW and Toyota. /Telegraph/