Norway has become the first country in the world to have more electric than gasoline cars on the road, which is unusual for a country that is rich in oil but wants to get rid of cars that use fossil fuels.
Of the 2.8 million private cars registered in Norway, 754,303 are fully electric, compared to 753,905 that use gasoline, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said.
Diesel models are still the most numerous with slightly less than a million vehicles, but their sales are also dropping sharply, AFP reported.
“This is a historic moment. A turning point that few saw coming 10 years ago,” announced OFV director Ojvind Solberg.
He said that the electrification of the passenger car fleet is proceeding rapidly and that Norway is rapidly moving towards becoming the first country in the world dominated by electric vehicles.
The speed at which Norway’s vehicle fleet is being renewed “suggests that we will have more electric cars than diesel cars in 2026,” Solberg added.
According to data from the International Energy Agency, electric vehicles accounted for only 3.2 percent of cars in the world in 2023. That percentage was 4.1 percent in France, 7.6 percent in China, 18 percent in Iceland.
Norway, a paradoxically large producer of oil and gas, has set a goal to sell only zero-emission vehicles from 2025, which is 10 years ahead of the EU goal. Norway is not a member of the EU.
