Never before have combustion cars sold so poorly in Norway. There were only 1,000 of them out of all 130,000 that left Norwegian showrooms in 2024 – according to a report by OFV, an organization monitoring the Norwegian automotive market.
Norwegian showrooms sold almost 130,000 newly manufactured cars in the last twelve months, which is a minimal increase compared to 2023. Just every tenth car was not powered solely by an electric motor. This number also includes hybrid vehicles, which accounted for 8%. total sales. Only 986 of the newly registered cars were cars with a petrol engine.
What cars do Norwegians choose?
Every fifth sold in Norway the electrician was Tesla. Far behind Elon Musk's brand, the following places were taken by: Volvo, Volkswagen, Toyota and Skoda, respectively. Originating from China BYD, MG and XPeng took distant places.
Experts believe that new car sales will continue to grow more strongly in the new year, and electric cars will dominate the market even more.
– In 2024, many people postponed or gave up buying a new car, probably in anticipation interest rate cuts and strengthening of the krone – says Oyvind Solberg Thorsen, managing director of OFV.
Norwegians have changed their preferences
The head of OFV expects faster growth of the Norwegian economy in 2025. Combined with the numerous announced premieres of new models and maintaining incentives promoting electric cars, their sales may accelerate even further. Norwegians have also changed their preferences. Solberg Thorsen points out that from year to year the new cars they buy are smaller and cheaper.
The government in Oslo decided a few years ago that the sale of a new electric passenger car for a price of up to NOK 500,000 (approximately PLN 200,000) would be exempt from VAT. This is the main incentive used by buyers today.
Unlike Poland, electric cars cannot park for free in cities. The law obliges municipalities to charge electricians lower fees for entering the city center or parking, but there is no free parking in the city centers of Norwegian cities. From the summer of 2024, electric cars can no longer drive in Oslo, the so-called bus lanes.
Therefore, Christina Bu, head of Norsk Elbiforening, an association of electric car users, claims that the popularity of these cars among Norwegians is influenced not only by financial incentives, of which there are fewer and fewer, but also by the rising costs of purchasing traditional cars.
– Since 2012, the import fee included in the price of a new combustion car has doubled. Fuel price increased by at least 50%. In addition, there are operating costs, which in the case of electric cars are incomparably lower than in the case of combustion cars – says the director of Norsk Elbilforening in an interview with PAP.
Bu is sure that driving an electric car in Norway will always remain cheaper than a combustion car. According to data presented by her association, owners most often charge their car batteries at home. Although the price of Norwegian electricity is fluid and changes even every hour, the government guarantees its price for households, and the cost of 1 kWh rarely exceeds 80 ore (about 30 groszy). Therefore, driving 100 kilometers usually costs a Norwegian driver no more than the equivalent of PLN 6.
Norway ready for electric cars
Norway is also a world leader in developing the infrastructure necessary for electric cars. According to the Norwegian Statistics Bureau SSB, at the end of December 2024 there was one fast charger with a power of at least 50 kW for every 19 registered electric cars. There were almost 10,000 of them in total.
– And today, most of them are installations with a capacity of 150 kW – emphasizes Christina Bu in an interview with PAP. – Almost all of them belong to private operators and dozens of new points appear every month where drivers can charge their cars in just a few minutes. The price of a kilowatt ranges from NOK 6, which is approximately PLN 2. Of the 8,331 charging points available on the Vistula River, according to the Polish New Mobility Association at the end of November 2024, only 30 percent were stations with a power above 22 kW, and the charging price in Poland is almost equal to that in Norway.
Almost all electricity produced in Norway (89.6 percent at the end of November 2024) comes from renewable sources. It is mainly produced by hydroelectric power plants. The authorities in Oslo have set a goal for every newly registered passenger car in the country to be zero-emission by 2025. – It will certainly be a long way to achieve this goal – admits OFV manager Oyvind Solberg Thorsen.
Meanwhile, in Poland, according to data from the Electromobility Counter launched by the Polish Automotive Industry Association and the Polish New Mobility Association, at the end of November last year. they drove on our roads 136 404 electric passenger cars, incl 70,342 fully electric cars and 66,062 plug-in hybrids. The number of delivery vehicles and trucks with electric drive was 7,833.
At the end of November 2024, there were 8,331 publicly available charging points for electric vehicles in Poland. 30 percent of them were fast charging points with direct current (DC), and 70 percent – free alternating current (AC) points with a power less than or equal to 22 kW.
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