Norway has turn into the primary nation on the earth the place the vast majority of new automobile gross sales are pure-electric automobiles, spurred on largely by demand for Volkswagen Group EVs.
In 2020, 54.3% of all new automobiles offered in Norway have been totally electrical, up from 42.1% in 2019. This marks the primary time such automobiles have comprised greater than 50% of latest automobile gross sales in a rustic throughout a full 12 months.
Norway’s EV gross sales now make up greater than 10% of Europe’s as a complete, the place simply 4% of latest automobiles are totally electrical. The Nordic nation claims an identical benefit over the UK, the place EVs comprise simply 6.6% of latest automobiles at present.
A key driver of Norway’s EV uptake has been demand for new-for-2020 Volkswagen Group EVs, of which Audi’s E-tron and E-tron Sportback fashions have been the most well-liked. General, EVs accounted for 76,789 of 141,412 new automobiles in 2020, with Audi’s SUV making up 9227, greater than a tenth of all new EVs offered.
Volkswagen’s ID 3 electrical hatchback was the third hottest automobile, with 7754 items offered, regardless of solely being launched in September, just under the Tesla Mannequin 3 (7770 gross sales) and above the Nissan Leaf (5221 gross sales).
The quickly rising recognition of EVs in Norway comes courtesy of the nation’s beneficiant tax breaks for zero-emission automobiles, imposed as a part of a objective of turning into the primary nation to finish the gross sales of combustion-engined automobiles by 2025.
The CEO of the Norwegian Highway Federation (OFV), Oeyvind Thorsen, informed a information convention that Norway is “positively on observe to achieve the 2025 goal”. Based on present plans, this may be 5 years earlier than the identical milestone is reached within the UK.
In 2020, 108,205 pure-electric autos have been registered in Britain. Though that is simply 6.6% of all new automobile gross sales, it’s a substantial enhance over gross sales of the identical automobiles in 2019. That 12 months, EVs made up simply 1.6% of UK new automobile gross sales, with 37,850 discovering consumers.
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