Electric cars accounted for nearly 80% of new car registrations in Norway last year, a new world record, according to figures released by a specialist body on Monday.
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Driven by America’s Tesla, which tops the manufacturer rankings with a 12.2 percent market share, 138,265 new electric cars were sold in the Scandinavian country last year, or 79.3 percent of total new car sales, according to Road Traffic Information Council (FOV) said in a statement.
Norway, which is both a major hydrocarbon producer and a pioneer in zero-emission cars, broke its own record set in 2021 (64.5%).
For comparison, electric vehicles accounted for 8.6% of new registrations in the European Union in the first nine months of 2022.
In December alone, fully electric cars accounted for 82.8% of sales as Norwegian households rushed ahead of a tax change that made them more expensive to buy.
Tesla’s Model Y alone accounted for 11.5% of the market, with Elon Musk’s group boasting about breaking the sales record held by the iconic Volkswagen Beetle since 1969.
Norway is aiming for all of its new cars to be zero-emissions – electric or hydrogen – by 2025, thanks in particular to extremely favorable taxation.
However, as this segment has matured, authorities have begun slashing some of the benefits that are weighing heavily on public accounts.
The exemption from VAT (at a rate of 25%) when buying a new electric vehicle has only applied since January 1st up to a purchase price of 500,000 crowns (approx. 47,500 euros), amounts above that are taxable.
Today, every fifth car on Norwegian roads is fully electric, another world record.