Norway to Become First All EV Nation in 2025

Norway is on its way to become the first country in the world to become a nation all electric vehicles (EVs) very soon as these vehicles made up a whopping 96% of new vehicle registrations January this year.

Of the 9,343 new passenger cars in January, 8,954 were electric. Last year at the same time, the electric car share was 92%, while in January 2025 it ended at 96%. Once the target is achieved, Norway will be entirely a decade ahead of the European Union’s (EU) 2030 electrification targets.

The EU, on the other hand, saw EVs account for 13.6% of total car sales for the entire 2024, making it the first time EV sales in the EU declined since 2020, vehicle manufacturer ACEA said.

At this rate, European vehicle manufacturers like Mercedes and Volvo are struggling to compete with Chinese automakers and it will most likely be years or even decades before the EU catches up to Norway.

Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council (OFV) Director Oyvind Solberg Thorsen said that it was a nice increase, and taking them in the right direction. But they believe it was too early to say that the electric car goal has been reached. The 2025 goal is 100% electric cars, he said.

“The last few percent may be far off, and it’s too early to draw conclusions. Only during the last five days of January did the share of electric cars actually decrease slightly, and a few hundred chose a diesel or gasoline car,” he pointed out.

Incentives Should Continue

Coming to vans, 1,703 new vans were registered last month, 22% more than in January 2024. Of these, 753 were electric. This is a share of 44%, compared to 37% in January last year. The diesel share was 54%.

“We see that when electric vans with both range and four-wheel drive arrive, it pushes EV sales in the right direction. But there is a long way to go until we reach the 100% target, which also applies to vans. Therefore, it is crucial to strengthen the incentives for this vehicle group,” Thorsen said.

According to him, they have not seen such a surge in EV registrations before and predicted that Norway could achieve 100% electric vehicle sales if the trend continues. However, Norway will have to maintain the subsidies and incentives that have made electric cars affordable for Norwegians if it wishes to reach this goal this year itself.

Like many other countries, Norway has been using incentives to offset expensive EV prices and accelerate electric vehicle adoption. Ironically, Norway produces a great deal of fossil fuels (oil and gas) but used a large portion of this revenue to fund its electrification agenda.

With the vast majority of drivers being unable to afford electric cars, these incentives have been instrumental in expanding Norway’s electric vehicle market.