- July car sales for Norway, published by the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV), shows that fully-electric cars in the country hit a record high market share last month.
- 91.9% of passenger cars sold, or 5,933, were fully electric. Just 45 were petrol (0.7%) and 164 (2.5%) diesel, with the remaining percentages made up for with hybrid and plug-in hybrid models.
- The record market share shows promise for Norway reaching its target of all new passenger cars sold being fully electric, by 2025.
Norway’s world-leading EV adoption continues
The high level of EV sales shown by the OFV also mean fully-electric vehicles could soon overtake the number of petrol cars on the nation’s roads. Earlier in the year, 24.3% of cars on the road were fully-electric, compared to 26.9% being petrol-powered.
It’s not all plain sailing for Norway’s switch to EV, however. Despite the clear successes on the passenger car side, twice as many diesel vans were sold in the first seven months of 2024, compared to fully electric alternatives. This is despite the fact that the country wants to outlaw new ICE-powered light vans by 2025, and heavy vans by 2030. The OFV has called for stronger electric van purchase incentives, to push this change.
The figures also show the significant role policy and public messaging play in driving EV adoption. Just over the North Sea in the UK, the SMMT warned that the country could struggle to hit BEV market share of 22%, by the end of the year, unless further action is taken around EV incentives and infrastructure.
Øyvind Solberg Thorsen, Director of the Norwegian Road Federation, commented on the figures:
“Norway is the world leader in the share of electric cars, and the norm now is around 90 per cent electric in new car sales. That is probably also what we end up with for the year as a whole”
