Norway once again showed that the all-electric car future is near as November car sales in the country see internal combustion engine car sales crumble.
The Scandinavian country has been the leading market for electric vehicles in terms of adoption per capita.
Norway Sees Increase in All-Electric Car Sales
As numerous markets are introducing plans to ban gas-powered cars by 2030, and even later, Norway is aiming for each new car on the road to be all-electric by 2025, and it is on pace to achieve that early, according to Electrek.
The result this year has been very stunning, with the November numbers released today is no exception.
Norway is reporting 73.8% of sales last month coming from all-electric vehicles and the number goes up to 94.9% when adding all vehicle with batteries.
Tesla is currently leading the sales with both the best-selling and second best-selling vehicles in the market last month: Tesla Model Y: 1,013 units, Tesla Model 3: 771 units, Volkswagen ID.4: 725 units, Audi Q4 e-tron: 661 units, and Nissan Leaf: 655 units.
Tesla is often a difference-maker in the market because its volume comes by boat late in the quarter.
Therefore, the month of December is expected to show even more EV sales in Norway with a larger Model 3 and Model Y shipment, according to Clean Technica.
The increase in sales report came after Norway filed a lawsuit against Tesla for allegedly decreasing the battery capacity and speed of the electric vehicle.
Taxing Electric Vehicles
Norway's environmentalists say they are not against the idea of taxing EVs so long as taxes for fossil fuel cars stay high, too. But there is concern about the wrong taxes coming too soon. "This could cause major setbacks," says activist Frederic Hauge, according to Wired.
"Reintroducing VAT for cars above 600,000 krone seems like a strange thing to do because those are the cars that are useful" in rural areas where people spend more time on the road and need to drive EVs over long distances, he says.
Anette Berve, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Automobile Federation, is also worried about timing. She believes a tax on used electric car sales would undermine the market before it's had a chance to develop, while a tax on hybrids would disadvantage drivers living in the north of the country who don't have access to the extensive charging infrastructure that exists in the south.
She echoes the Norwegian consensus that hybrids are a "transitional technology" that will eventually stand in the way of full electrification. "However it is a transitional technology that we believe is still needed because [the EV market is] still not completely mature," she adds.
Case in point: EVs still only make up 15 percent of Norway's entire vehicle population, according to the Road Traffic Information Council. It's a substantial number by global standards, but there's still a long way to go.
Unni Berge of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, a consumer group that represents EV drivers, says it's not existing EV drivers who will be threatened by the withdrawal of incentives-but rather the people who haven't yet joined their ranks.
"We are not fighting for our members but fighting for new people to become EV drivers," she says, adding that the group's main goal was to make sure VAT and purchase tax exemptions stayed in place.
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Written by Sophie Webster
