(John Cameron, Unsplash)
Sales of electric cars in Norway have overtaken traditional vehicles for the first time: 58% of all new vehicles sold in March 2019 were battery-powered.
Image: IEA
When it comes to electric vehicle uptake, Norway is streets ahead of any other country. With a series of incentives introduced by successive governments over the last two decades, it is on a mission to phase out sales of diesel and petrol cars by 2025. In fact, so rapid has the uptake been, that car manufacturers are struggling to keep pace.
Image: Norwegian Road Foundation
The acceleration of the EV market
With countries around the world seeing electric vehicle use as a major way to curb greenhouse gas emissions, incentives to encourage uptake have proliferated.
In Norway, drivers of zero emissions cars (those powered by electric or hydrogen) enjoy benefits such as no road tax, exemption from 25% VAT on sales, reduced road and ferry tolls and parking costs, and access to bus lanes.
These initiatives have propelled Norway to have the highest electric vehicle use per capita.
But, by pure volume, Norway’s EV market is small change in comparison to China. Dwarfing it’s Scandanavian counterpart, it claimed 40% of the EV market in 2017 – up from just over 10% in 2013.
Electric vehicles accounted for 4% of all 28.1 million automobiles sold in China last year – and ambitious targets see the government setting its sights on EVs making up 10% of all passenger car sales in 2019, rising to 12% in 2020.
Image: IEA
Still not quick enough?
The future for electric vehicles looks bright and there’s no denying EVs are becoming more affordable and demand is soaring. The global market for electric vehicles has doubled since 2013. However, putting this in context, there are still only 4 million electric vehicles in use around the world, compared to more than a billion cars on the road altogether. And there is still a need for more supporting infrastructure to be developed.
The World Economic Forum’s report Electric Vehicles for Smarter Cities: The Future of Energy and Mobility identifies a number of guiding principles to support and encourage further EV uptake. In particular, the electrification of high-use vehicles, including public transport, should be prioritized. The proliferation of energy-efficient charging hubs and smart charging will also be crucial, with the availability of chargers and the distance cars are able to travel between charges cited by potential EV customers as key concerns.
Share this Sting:
Discover more from The European Sting - Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology - europeansting.com
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Great news — but where is the electric power coming from for the recharging of the EVs? I hope wind, solar, hydro etc and NOT natural gas or oil !!!!!!
In Norway, 99% of the electricity comes from renewable energy sources.
Also: EVs + smart grid + offshore wind = solution
Norway’s Smakraft announces plans to double its generating capacity by 2022
BTW, Norway is already the European storehouse of PHES.
Sorry, you can only post one link per comment, else you’re waiting ages for moderation. So just in case you don’t know what PHES means => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity
Electric vehicle sales soar in China, as overall auto market falls
New Zealand tipped to reach 100% electric vehicle sales by 2030
Forget 50% by 2030 – Half of all Australian voters want 100% EVs by 2025
Norway has an even smaller population than Portugal , so what it does is irrelevent , and a lot of its income comes from OIL .
Until electric vehicles can do 500-660 kms without recharging , they will be useless outside cities , and also that there is legislation to take care of battery recycling , and proof that mining and production of lithium batteries is not polluting and energy consuming.
There will also have to be proof that electricity generation is from non polluting sources , especially when we see how polluting electricity generation is in countries like Germany which use lignite .
Who will bear the costs of the electrical infrastructure , especially in homes and the streets , and where will all the replacement income for governments come from when they lose the income from petrol and diesel taxes .
Countries outside Europe will be very slow to adopt electric vehicles due to cost and infrastructure , and Eu car manufacturers will lose markets as they produce no petrol or diesel vehicles .
Even in parts of Europe there are places where there are no electrical supplies , let alone in other parts of the world , and this proves that politicians and so-called experts really know nothing about countries , legislation cannot be used to force all electric vehicles , they have to prove they are the best ,