Norway is electric

Statistics

At the end of 2024, electric vehicles (EVs) held an 88% market share in the market for new passenger cars in Norway, resulting in EVs making up 28% of the total passenger car stock. There has been a notable increase in the adoption of EVs also for new heavy-duty vehicles. For new urban busses, the EV market share reached 72% by the end of 2024. Updated status for zero-emissions vehicles can be found here.

How did we do it?

A combination of taxation rules and incentives are the main reasons for the high adoption of EVs in Norway. Fossil fuel vehicles are subjected to a CO2 tax, which favours the use of EVs. Additionally, EVs are exempted from road usage taxes, which are intended to cover external costs such as noise, local air pollution and congestion. Petrol and diesel cars also face relatively high registration taxes, structured to strongly incentivize the purchase of low-emission vehicles. EVs also only pay VAT for the part of the prices that exceeds NOK 500,000.

Beyond tax incentives, there are user benefits: local authorities can charge EVs a maximum of 70% of the full toll road rate, and many local authorities allow EVs to access bus lanes. Climate-related requirements in public procurement are also crucial for reducing emissions. Zero-emission requirements have been mandates for all public purchase of passenger cars since 2022, light and heavy vans since 2023, and for local buses since 2024. This means that both the central government and local levels must choose zero-emission vehicles when purchasing passenger cars, vans, and local buses.

Costs for the government

It is no secret that all these benefits entail significant costs for the government. For the 2025 budget year, an estimated total loss of approximately 50 billion NOK from car-related taxes is anticipated, compared to a 2007-tax level. Projections indicate a total revenue loss of 640 billion NOK from 2007 to 2025, compromising 540 billion NOK from car-related taxes and 100 billion NOK from VAT revenue. However, this entire loss cannot be solely attributed to the introduction of electric cars. Part of the revenue decline is also due to more hybrid cars and more efficient fossil-fueled cars with lower emission. Additionally, there are reduced revenue from lower toll rates and discounted ferry prices for electric cars.  

Given the substantial government expenditure on EV policies and the much improved competitive technology of EVs in most segments, we have adjusted EV incentives over the past years. Still, Norway’s main goal remains to ensure that choosing an EV is an attractive and economically viable choice for consumers.

Charging infrastructure

Adequate fast charging infrastructure is crucial for increasing the adoption of EVs. The Norwegian government supports a market-driven development of charging infrastructure. In December 2022, the government introduced a national charging strategy, implementing measures to ensure continued expansion of public fast charging for private cars. As of the end of 2024, Norway has over 9 000 publicly available fast charging points for light vehicles.

Increased government effort towards heavy-duty vehicles

As the Norwegian passenger car market is more or less electric already, there are not enough electric heavy-duty vehicles on the roads today to make specific charging for these vehicles profitable. Therefore, both zero emission heavy-duty vehicles and charging stations can get financial support from Enova. Further, the government intends to speed up the renewal of so called “safe and secure parking areas”, where HDVs make their daily rest and to establish new locations in order to prepare for charging infrastructure.

Goals

The Norwegian government has ambitious goals for reducing emissions from road transport. In our National Transport Plan 2018-2029, also continued in our National Transport Plan 2025-2036, several targets were set for zero-emission vehicles:

• All new passenger cars and light vans sold should be zero-emission by 2025.
• All new city buses should be zero-emission or use biogas by 2025.
• All new heavy vans, 75% of new long-distance buses and 50% of new lorries sold should be zero-emission by 2030.
• Distribution of most goods in major city areas should be emission free by 2030.

A precondition for these goals is that technological development will make zero emission technology in transport competitive with fossil technology.