electrek has an impressive report on Norway’s embrace of electric vehicles (EVs):
Norway is ahead of the game in EV sales, with gasoline’s share of the new car market vanishing more and more every month, faster than almost anyone outside of Electrek‘s Slack channel could have predicted. This has led Norway to have the earliest target for the phaseout of new gas vehicle sales in the world – 2025.
But gas cars might not even last that long. According to an analysis printed by the Norwegian Automobile Federation’s magazine, Motor, the downward trend in sales for gas cars has been so consistent and steep that the last new gas car sale in Norway could happen just seven months from now, in April 2022.
Norway’s Road Traffic Council reports monthly sales figures for all cars sold in the country, so we have accurate reports on just how many new cars of each powertrain choice get sold. In the most recent accounting, cars without any type of electrification made up less than 10% of new car sales, down from about 21% the year prior.
If the trend present for the last few years continues, the trend line will hit zero in April 2022. This is a lot earlier than their 2025 target (which, to be clear, is not a legal requirement yet, more of a soft target agreed upon by Norway’s government).
Well, maybe not that impressive:
These statistics do count conventional hybrids as “electrified” – somewhat of a strange designation, since they still get 100% of their energy from gasoline – but all of the top vehicles can run at least partially on electricity. And conventional hybrids make up less than 10% of new car sales anyway.
But if hybrids only make up 10% of new car sales, that’s still not bad.
It’s also worth noting the missing context: their used car market. I can’t help but wonder how the numbers shift if you combine the two, consumer sales only. Are the EVs still dominant, or does the picture change enormously?
But it’s good to see some are following what seems a common-sense suggestion:
Some Norwegian gas stations are already replacing pumps with chargers, after all.
Something every gas station in America should be doing on their own, as I’ve stated before.
[h/t CJ]
