Norway Is the First Country to Have More EVs Than Gas-Powered Cars

Norway’s drivers have set a new record—but not when it comes to speed.

The Nordic country just became the first in the world to have more electric vehicles on the road than gas-powered cars, the BBC reported on Tuesday. With 2.8 million private vehicles registered in Norway, 754,303 are all-electric, while 753,905 use petrol, according to data from the Norwegian Road Federation. The remaining cars, just under one million, run on diesel, but sales of those vehicles are dwindling, the group said.

The major milestone has been helped along by the Norwegian state itself, which has offered drivers incentives to switch to EVs, the BBC noted. When buying an electric car, drivers are exempt from sales tax. And once they’re in possession of that vehicle, they don’t have to pay city tolls and they can often find free parking at many places. Plus, free charging stations are found throughout the country, with 2,000 in Oslo alone. (The lack of a robust charging network has been a big problem in the United States, in comparison.)

These perks are able to be doled out in large part because Norway makes so much money from oil and gas, the BBC wrote. The country is one of the largest exporters of oil, and it has a sovereign wealth fund of more than $1.7 trillion thanks to the money it’s made in its oilfields.

EV adoption in Norway is especially pronounced when you compare it to that in the U.S.: From January through July last year, just over 7 percent of the cars sold in America were battery-powered. While that was a substantial increase from years prior, it pales in comparison to the EV market in Norway. There, an impressive nine out of 10 new cars sold in Norway are EVs, according to industry figures cited by the BBC.

That large-scale interest in electric vehicles is helping Norway reach its goal of becoming the first nation to completely end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2025—not a small feat for a country that’s home to 5.5 million people. While there’s not a ton of time to go until that target date comes around, Norway seems to be on the right track. Perhaps someday soon we’ll be talking about Norway setting yet another automobile record.

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