96% of cars sold in Norway are electric

In the Nordic country, new electric cars pay virtually no tax, unlike thermal models.

Nearly 96% of new cars sold in January in Norway were electric, close to the government's goal of selling only zero-emission cars by 2025.

Fully electric vehicles accounted for 95.8% of new car sales in January, the Road Information Council (OFV) reported.

"This has never been seen before. If the rest of the year continues like January, we will quickly approach the 2025 target," said Øyvind Solberg Thorsen, director of the OFV, in a statement.

"But if we want to reach 100% electric cars, we need to maintain incentives that make the decision to buy an electric car more profitable than other models," he added.

In Norway, new electric cars pay virtually no tax, unlike thermal models, which are subject to additional taxes.

For a long time, electric cars have benefited from several advantages, such as free tolls and parking or the ability to drive on lanes reserved for buses.

Some of these advantages have been diminishing, but the electric car has already established itself as the norm.

In January, diesel cars accounted for only 1.5% of registrations and gasoline cars 0.4%, according to OFV statistics.

Of the 9,343 individual cars sold in January, 8,954 are electric.

The best-selling model was Toyota's bZ4X, ahead of Volkswagen's ID.4 and the Nissan Ariya.

To highlight Norway's success, it is enough to note that in Europe in December 2024 the percentage of new electric vehicles sold was only 13.6%, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA).