All-electric cars have hit a new record 54% market share of Norway’s total new cars sales in 2020 – showing that the goal of 100% of new car sales being all-electric by 2025 is achievable.
Norway and electric cars
While many countries are just now implementing goals for electric cars to replace all new car sales by 2030 to 2040, Norway had its goal to achieve that by 2025 for years now.
The ironically oil-rich country took an interesting approach: Rather than giving rebates on new electric vehicles, the country already had strong taxes on gas-guzzling vehicles and gave tax exemptions to electric vehicles.
It made many electric vehicles extremely competitive in the country and accelerated the shift of the car buyer’s mindset when it comes to considering all-electric vehicles.
In turn, it pushed many automakers to offer more electric vehicles in the market – creating a perfect storm of strong demand for EVs in a market with the availability of many different electric models to choose from.
The results
These trends have propelled Norway into the forefront of EV adoption.
While EV sales are globally representing about 3% of total new car sales, Norway is showing that it is possible to greatly accelerate the transition.
In 2020, the market hit a new record with 54.3% of all new cars sold in 2020 being all-electric (BEV).
The transition of market shares between all-electric (BEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV), hybrid (HEV), petrol, and diesel over only a 10-year period is incredibly impressive:
In 2020, 76,789 cars were all-electric out of 141,412 passenger vehicles delivered in Norway.
Availability of electric car models
While the EV incentives through higher taxes for gas-guzzlers are certainly the main driver of the shift, the actual availability of different EV models is also making a big difference.
Many automakers are focusing new electric vehicle launches in the Norwegian market since the interest for EVs is extremely high there.
If they don’t sell EVs in Norway, they aren’t selling anything in the country.
For example, the Audi e-tron was the best-selling vehicle in the country in 2020, and while the electric SUV is available globally, Audi made a less expensive variant with a smaller battery pack that isn’t available in North America, but popular in Norway.
The country also received a lot of VW ID.3 cars in 2020, while the electric vehicle is still in limited supply.
Globally available EVs are also still doing well in the country with the Tesla Model 3 being the second best-selling vehicle in Norway last year.
The local EV association is aiming for the EV market share to jump from 54% to 65% in 2021 in order to achieve the goal of 100% of new car sales to be all-electric by 2025.
Norway is likely to beat 65% in 2021 with many new EVs hitting the market, including the Audi Q4 e-tron, Tesla Model Y, and many more.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
