Norway EV sales reach 15%
Norwegians’ interest for renewable energy-powered cars continues
Photo: Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia
The Tesla Model S, one of Norway’s top cars.
Sarah Bostock
The Foreigner
15% of current new cars in Norway are electric. The Norwegian Parliament aims to have 50,000 zero-emission vehicles on Norwegian roads by 2018. Some 40,000 electric vehicles were traveling on Norway’s roads as of December 2014, with numbers expected to increase to 50,000 in 2015.
Moreover, Norway came second in the global EV sales market last year, with 6.1% of global sales in 2013.
“About 80 percent of the plug-in cars are privately owned; while the country’s overall conventional vehicle fleet is estimated at 2.9 million,” publication The National quoted Transnova senior advisor Tom Norbech as saying. Transnova is a Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications subsidiary.
EV market sales for December 2014 reveal that there were a total of 43442 EV cars in Norway, with capital city Oslo having over 8,405.
Oslo hopes to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030, with plans of being climate neutral by 2050.
Scandinavian capital officials have signed an agreement that would encourage replacing fossil fuel-driven vehicles with cleaner models from Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Peugeot over a three-year period between 2015 and 2017.
Amongst moves aimed at encouraging its citizens to purchase EVs are measures such as free parking, free charging at public stations, bus lane use, and toll exemptions for the Oslo city bypass (Ring Road).
Free parking and charging and permission to use bus lanes are already in place in other Norwegian cities such as western Norway’s Stavanger.
Norway is to be brought before the EFTA Court for failing to reduce high pollution levels. Bergen also does and has suffered from harmful levels of pollution.
U.S. car manufacturer Tesla has enjoyed soaring sales figures in Norway. At the same time, Norway consumer information publication Dinside named the Kia Soul EV was named as the 2015 Car of the Year.
2015 also sees Finnish tire maker Nokian having designed the first winter tire for BMW’s i3 electric car.
The winter tire will have an A energy rating under the European rating system.
According to the company, this allows for “safe, economical, and high-performance driving on snow and ice in demanding Nordic winter weather.”
This article was originally published on The Foreigner. To subscribe to The Foreigner, visit theforeigner.no.
It also appeared in the Feb. 6, 2015, issue of the Norwegian American Weekly.
