In World First, EVs Now Outnumber Gas-Powered Cars in Norway

In a major milestone, electric cars (EVs) now outnumber gas-powered cars in Norway for the first time, according to the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV), as AFP reported.

Of private cars registered in the country, 754,303 of 2.8 million are all-electric, with 753,905 running on gas.

“This is historic. A milestone few saw coming 10 years ago,” said Oyvind Solberg Thorsen, director of OFV, in a statement. “The electrification of the fleet of passenger cars is going quickly, and Norway is thereby rapidly moving towards becoming the first country in the world with a passenger car fleet dominated by electric cars.”

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Norway, home to 5.5 million people, is one of the biggest oil exporters in the world, reported BBC News. But the country is now looking to become the first country to stop selling new gas- and diesel-powered cars — by next year.

EV sales in the Nordic country have been given a lift by incentives like tax breaks, largely funded by profits from oil and gas.

Diesel cars are still the most prominent in Norway, with nearly one million, but sales are rapidly decreasing, AFP reported.

Thorsen said the speed with which the country’s car fleet is turning over “suggests that in 2026 we will have more electric cars than diesel cars.”

Thorsen added that, as far as he was aware, “no other country in the world is in the same situation” with more EVs than fossil fuel-powered cars.

The International Energy Agency said 3.2 percent of cars in the world last year were EVs, but unlike in Norway, the data included rechargeable hybrids.

In August, nearly all — 94.3 percent — of Norway’s new car registrations were EVs.

“We’re almost there,” Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association Chief Christina Bu told AFP. “Now the government just has to make a little extra effort in the 2025 budget bill (to be presented to parliament on October 7) and resist the temptation to raise taxes on EVs while continuing to increase those on fuel cars.”

The fast transition to EVs over the past 20 years has helped Norway with its climate targets, which include a greenhouse gas reduction of 55 percent from 1990 levels by 2030.

However, though the country reduced its emissions by 4.7 percent compared with the year before, the decline was just 9.1 percent lower than 1990 levels.

For the first time in Sweden, new EV sales declined this year, Mobility Sweden said, likely due to the government removing a rebate on buying EVs.

In the rest of Europe, EV sales started falling toward the end of last year, accounting for 12.5 percent of new auto sales since the beginning of 2024, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said.

Thinktank Transport & Environment predicted EV new car registrations would dramatically increase next year to from 20 to 24 percent.

“For all the complaints and protestations of impossibility, the Nordic countries have by and large left gas behind. All have high EV penetration, led by Norway, and there have not been any of the widespread problems that fossil fuel propaganda constantly tries to convince you that high EV use would lead to,” reported Electrek.