Oil industry is finally starting to be affected by Norway’s rapid electric car adoption

Norway’s electric vehicle adoption rate is so far ahead of most countries that it gives us glimpses into the future of bigger markets – sometimes even decades ahead of time.

Now it is starting to show signs of demand for gasoline and diesel slowing down as electric vehicles are taking over.

In Norway, the market share of electric vehicles has hit over 50% of new cars over the last year, which is higher than in any other country.

That’s the latest record, but it also maintained double-digit market share since the latest rise in popularity of new electric vehicles, like Tesla’s and the Nissan Leaf, over the past 4 years.

But it takes a long time to replace a country-wide fleet of passenger cars, which is why EVs still account for less than 10% of all cars on the roads in Norway.

It’s still a significant part of the fleet and the oil industry should see an impact, but the EV adoption didn’t keep up with the growth of the industry, which led to continued growth over the period – until now.

The Norweigan government released its final 2017 figures for Sales of Petroleum Products and for the first time since at least 2014, Norway’s consumption of gasoline and diesel declined across the board, Forbes report:

Motor gasoline sales declined by 2.9%, dutiable diesel fell by 2.7%, and duty-free diesel declined by 2.6%. This decline follows sales that were flat in 2014, and then grew by 1% in 2015 and 3.2% in 2016. Overall petroleum product sales declined by 2.2%, although some categories of consumption, such as heavy fuel oil, jet kerosene, and other petroleum products all showed higher consumption.

In other words, it’s the first time that demand for petroleum products used in cars has fallen since the EV revolution has started to pick up steam in Norway.

Some experts see this as the first sign of the growing EV fleet starting to have an impact on the oil industry.

Norway, itself an important petroleum producer, has been investing heavily into reducing its dependence on its own products.

Not only with its many electric car incentives, which have significantly increased EV adoption, but also several initiatives in other areas, like a plan to make local electric flight happen and a new law to make its fjords ‘the world’s first zero emission zone at sea’.

They have adopted a “don’t get high on your own supply” way of thinking.