VW will only sell EVs in Norway as of 2024 – but it has to, like everyone else

Volkswagen says it will only sell EVs in Norway as soon as 2024, which is ahead of regulations forcing the German automaker to do so. But this is likely something that is happening naturally in the market and every automaker is going to have to follow.

Today, Norway’s Postsen reported that Volkswagen is planning to announce the end of petro and diesel vehicle sales by January 1, 2024:

Volkswagen will cut off all sales of petrol, diesel and hybrid cars in Norway on 1 January 2024. Director Ulf Tore Hekneby of Volkswagen importer Harald A. Møller will announce an event at Arendalsuka on Thursday.

While they note that the automaker is doing so ahead of government guidelines to end combustion vehicle sales by the end of 2025, the market is actually the one driving this move.

Of all cars sold in Norway in 2021, 64.5% were all-electric – up 10 points from the previous year and not slowing down. Now in 2022, all-electric car sales are presenting as 83% of the auto market in Norway, with diesel and petro vehicle sales slowing down to a crawl.

Electrek’s Take

At the current EV adoption pace and with dozens of more EV models hitting the market, Norway should be at over 95% EV market share by the end of next year, with only a handful of fossil fuel-powered vehicles sold every month to a bunch of outlier petrolheads.

Therefore, regardless of regulations and what automakers are planning to do, they likely won’t be able to sell any fossil fuel-powered vehicles by the end of next year because there won’t be anyone willing to buy them.

Good on Volkswagen for recognizing it and getting ahead of it. I hope other automakers are also paying attention because, otherwise, they will be stuck with inventory in the market.

More importantly, what is happening in Norway right now is going to happen in every other market and much faster than people think.

The US is at just about 6% EV sales right now, so it’s hard to imagine getting there any time soon, but once the shift happens in the market’s mindset, it’s going to happen fast. And of course, electric pickup trucks are going to help since the US auto market just loves bigger vehicles.