An electric car from the Tesla brand, in Norway (illustrative image). – Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
Norway is taking the all-electric route. In 2020, the country became the first in the world where electric cars accounted for more than half of new registrations, according to figures published on Tuesday.
Despite the pandemic of Covid – 000 which delayed the launch of new models, the electric has assumed a market share of 47, 3% last year in the Nordic country, against 20, 4% a year earlier, according to figures from a Norwegian specialist body, the Information Council on road traffic (OFV). Unmatched in the world, sales even saw a boost at the end of the year: in December, the market share of electrics broke a new monthly record, at 66, 7%.
Largest producer of hydrocarbons
“This is an extremely positive trend,” said Christina Bu, general secretary of the Norwegian Association of Electric Vehicles, which promotes “zero emissions”. “We are almost on track to achieve the goals of 2021 ”, she added.
Norway, which is paradoxically the largest producer of hydrocarbons in Western Europe , displays the ambition that all its new cars are “zero emission” – electric and hydrogen – to effective that year. With several steps ahead of other European countries, however ambitious, such as the United Kingdom, which has just advanced to 2030 the date of prohibition of sales of gasoline and diesel cars. France should reach this milestone by 2030.
High expectations for 2021
To achieve its objective, the Nordic country is implementing an extremely advantageous tax policy even though it has started to erode some of the privileges granted to cars electric, such as free urban tolls or the possibility of using public transport corridors.
Unlike very heavily taxed diesel or gasoline cars, clean cars are exempt from almost any tax, which makes them more competitive to purchase. It was an electric sedan, which would normally have been out of the reach of most stock exchanges, that topped the Norwegian sales rankings last year –
the Audi e-tron , with a starting cost of around 42. euros – ahead of three other electric models, the Tesla Model 3, the Volkswagen ID.3 and the Nissan Leaf.
Despite this unrivaled performance, the Norwegian Association of Electric Vehicles says it is hungry for more , she who expected to see the electric monopolize near 55% of the market last year. “We would have done it if it had not been for the coronavirus,” said Christina Bu. “But it delayed several launches.” For the current year, the association says it is counting on a market share of 60%.