In Norway, only rental companies buy gas cars, because tourists don’t ‘get’ EVs

Norway’s full-year EV sales are in, and once again the country has broken its own record for EV adoption. In 2024, 88.9% of cars sold in Norway were all-electric, up from 82.4% in 2023.

The main holdout? Rental car companies, who service tourists who aren’t familiar with EVs.

In addition, plug-in hybrid sales tipped that number up to 91.6% of vehicles having a plug, as PHEVs captured an additional 2.7% of the market.

If we expand the definition to “electrified” vehicles, 5.3% of the market were conventional hybrids, bringing the total number of vehicles with an electric motor up to 96.9%. Only 2.3% of vehicles were diesel-only, and 0.8% of vehicles were petrol only.

The numbers confirm that Norway is basically on target with its plan to end gas car sales in 2025, a target it set last decade. It was already apparent years ago that the country was trending in the right direction, but anything could have happened, especially as Norway started reducing EV incentives as it had done in the last couple years.

Other countries that have reduced EV incentives have seen a drop in EV sales – like Germany, which has caused the European market to be the only global market to experience a drop in EV sales in the last year, as they rise everywhere else around the globe. But in Norway, EVs have continued to rise regardless.

While the country doesn’t have an official gas car ban on the books, the plan of high taxes on gasoline vehicles and perks for EVs had already worked out by the time those incentives were reduced, and it had already become normal to purchase an electric car rather than a gas car. Car companies even abruptly stopped offering non-EVs, realizing that the minuscule about of sales weren’t worth the bother.

While these numbers are all about the new car market, Norway’s EV market has been so strong for so long that now electric cars are starting to make up a significant percentage of cars on the road. At the end of 2024, that number now stands at 28.6% – not yet a majority, but it is more than the number of gas-only cars on the road. Diesel-only cars still outnumber EVs as the most common powertrain on Norway’s roads (at a bit over a third of cars on the road), but not for long.

But there are some holdouts, according to Ulf Tore Hekneby, who runs Harald A Moeller, Norway’s bigger car importer. Reuters quoted Hekneby as saying “the main buyers of ICE (internal combustion engine) cars in Norway are rental companies because many tourists are not familiar with EVs.”

So, native Norwegians have made the mental switch to electric, with the biggest share of ICE cars only being imported to serve foreigners from countries with comparatively low EV sales (like America, with its pathetic ~9% EV market share in 2024).

Rental companies in America have dealt with a similar issue, where Hertz made a huge EV purchase, only to later decide that it had overdone it, and that some renters just couldn’t figure out the cars (even though the EVs did increase Hertz’s overall customer satisfaction).

But it may not be long until those tourists have a harder time fueling a gas car than an EV, because for years now, gas stations have been replacing gas pumps with chargers and motor fuel sales have been dropping. Circle K, the largest gas station chain in Norway, says that it will have as many chargers as fuel pumps within three years.

Electrek’s Take

Norway’s EV adoption timeline has almost perfectly tracked the standard “S-curve” of technology adoption, accelerating over time until it reaches high levels, then flattening out for the last few percent of holdouts. We’re seeing that number now, where while Norway has basically hit its plan to eliminate gas car sales by 2025, there are likely to be a few here and there for various reasons.

This is why, for example, California’s much-vaunted “2035 gas car ban” (which, frankly, should be sooner) doesn’t actually ban all vehicles with a gasoline engine in them – it will allow for up to ~20% plug-in hybrids, assuming those PHEVs meet certain requirements.

However, most countries aren’t even close to having new EV sales eclipse new gas car sales, and Norway is already out here with over 90% of vehicles having a battery and more full EVs on the road than gas cars.

For all the complaints and protestations of impossibility that we keep hearing in the US, the Nordic countries have by and large left gas behind. All have high EV penetration, led by Norway, and there have not been any of the widespread problems that fossil fuel propaganda constantly tries to convince you that high EV use would lead to. The grid is fine, the cars work in the cold (even in the Northernmost human settlement on the planet), and everyone is happier with quieter roads and cleaner air.

Maybe instead of listening to ignorant clowns who are committed to increasing harm and costs, we should just take a look at how one of the happiest nations in the world has transformed its transportation system for the better, and take a few notes.

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