September is expected to mark a significant milestone in Norway, with the number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads set to exceed that of petrol vehicles.
As predicted earlier this year by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, new figures from Norway’s Road Traffic Information Council, the Opplysningsrådet for Veitrafikken (OFV), expect EVs to overtake petrol cars this month with EVs running at more than 90 per cent of new car sales.
An analysis of OFV figures published last week by Bilbransje24, a Norwegian auto industry publication, revealed that at the end of August, there were 751,450 electrified cars in service on Norway’s roads and 755,244 petrol-only cars, each accounting for around 26 per cent of the total number of cars on the roads.
There were another 1 million diesel cars on Norway’s roads but, according to Bilbransje24, the stock of diesel-fuelled passenger vehicles peaked in 2017 at close to 1.3 million and has since been slowly declining.
Today, diesel cars make up just under 35 per cent of Norway’s passenger car fleet.
While Norway’s EV numbers include hybrids and pure battery electric vehicles, the numbers nevertheless highlight the electrification trend and the benefit of favourable government policies.
For example, while the number of diesel vehicles peaked in 2017, pure petrol vehicles peaked at 1.6 million in 2005, accounting for around 80 per cent of all cars on Norway’s roads. It has taken only twenty years for that number to fall to nearly 25 per cent.
Bilbransje24’s full “mini-analysis”, including graphs, can be found here.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.