One in five cars on Norwegian roads is now electric, a proportion that has doubled in less than three years, the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association announced on Monday.
The biggest producer of hydrocarbons in Western Europe, Norway is also the world champion of the electric car with –by far– the highest number of vehicles circulating without emissions per inhabitant, and the highest proportion of the national vehicle fleet.
“The snowball is rolling faster and faster and more and more good electric car models are on Norwegian roads,” said association general secretary Christina Bu on her website. .
If it had taken almost ten years for the share of electric vehicles in the Norwegian car fleet to increase from 0 to 10%, a milestone reached in March 2020, less than three years were needed to double this proportion, noted the ‘association.
The 30% mark might be reached within two years, she estimated.
By way of comparison, electric cars represented 0.64% of the French car fleet on January 1, 2021, according to official statistics.
Arguably the most ambitious in the world, the Scandinavian country has set itself the goal that all its new cars will be ‘zero emissions’ – via electric or hydrogen – from 2025.
Clean cars benefit from multiple advantages: exemption from almost any tax, reduced price for urban tolls and parking in public car parks, possibility under certain conditions of using public transport corridors…
As a result, electric cars now represent around 80% of new registrations, especially as more and more models are available on the market.
Faced with the spread of these vehicles and the enormous shortfall that this generates for public finances, the Norwegian authorities have however started to trim certain advantages.
As of January 1, the exemption from VAT (at a rate of 25%) when acquiring a new electric vehicle will no longer apply except within the limit of a purchase price of 500,000 crowns (approximately 47,000 euros), amounts above this ceiling being subject to tax.
This mechanism will therefore weigh on the relatively high-end segment such as Tesla or certain electric models from manufacturers such as Mercedes and Audi.
/ATS
