The Norwegian new car sales market in 2024 once again witnessed strong growth in electric vehicles, according to data recently released by the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV). Of the 128,000 new cars sold in the year, more than 114,000 were electric cars, accounting for 88.9%, just one step away from realizing Norway's 2025 goal of selling only electric cars.

As early as 2016, Norway's four main political parties reached a consensus on a plan to ban the sale of fuel vehicles from 2025. The decision was met with skepticism due to its status as an oil and gas exporter, and the goal was considered too aggressive. However, now that Norway has become the country with the highest EV penetration rate in the world, the shift has been remarkable.

In terms of EV brands, Tesla, Volkswagen and Toyota are the most popular in the Norwegian market. Notably, Chinese brands of EVs have reached 8.8% of new car sales in Norway, an increase of 4.7 percentage points from 2021. Chinese automakers such as BYD, Xiaopeng and MG have performed well in the Norwegian market, all ranking in the top 15 of the sales chart. Among them, BYD and Xiaopeng both doubled their sales in 2024, reaching 2,669 and 1,962 units respectively.

The success of Chinese EVs in the Norwegian market is due to their advanced intelligent technology and price advantage. In addition, Norway has not joined the European Union, and the political environment is more friendly to Chinese car companies, which also provides favorable conditions for the development of Chinese brands in the region. In a recent competition organized by authoritative Norwegian media, Xiaopeng G9 won the first place in the “Norwegian People's Favorite Car of 2024”, and Azera EL6 also ranked fifth, which further proves the popularity of Chinese electric cars in the Norwegian market.

The popularity of electric cars in Norway is closely linked to the government's policy. Norway levies high taxes on gasoline and diesel vehicles, including CO2 tax and road use tax, which significantly increases the cost of using fuel vehicles. At the same time, Norway's exemption from import taxes and value-added tax on electric vehicles has a history of more than 20 years, car owners can also enjoy free parking, road toll concessions and other rights and interests. These policies have created favorable conditions for the popularity of electric vehicles in Norway.

Although one-third of Norway's territory is located in the Arctic Circle, cold weather will pose a challenge to the popularization of electric vehicles, but the major car companies see Norway as a new model and new technology “test bed”. If electric cars work well in a place as cold as Norway, they will work even better in other places with better weather conditions. Therefore, Norway's cold weather has not become an obstacle to the popularization of electric vehicles, but rather promote the continuous progress of electric vehicle technology.

In addition, the Norwegian government has put a lot of effort into improving domestic EV charging facilities. As of July 2024, Norway has about 3,500 charging stations and more than 25,000 charging piles. In Norway, the main road every 50 kilometers with a fast charging station, fast charging pile ownership in the world's leading level. This provides a strong guarantee for the popularization of electric vehicles in Norway.

With the rapid development of the Norwegian electric car market, Norway is likely to be 10 years ahead of the European Union to complete the plan to stop selling CO2 emitting cars by 2035. This achievement not only demonstrates Norway's determination and action in energy transition, but also provides useful reference and inspiration for other countries around the world.

In addition, China has introduced a unilateral visa-free policy for Norway on a trial basis. This policy will greatly facilitate Norwegian sightseeing and business trips to China, and promote economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. With the continuous development of Sino-Norwegian relations, more opportunities and possibilities for cooperation in areas such as electric vehicles will also come.

Synthesized from Beijing Daily Client