(Bloomberg) — Electric car sales hit a new monthly record in Norway, indicating the Nordic country is on track to reach its 2025 goal of no new fossil-fuel cars being sold.
Last year, Norway became the first country in the world to see electric cars overtake fossil models among new vehicles, helped by generous government incentives. The oil-rich nation may see all new cars become emission-free as soon as April, based on current trends, the Norwegian Automobile Federation has suggested.
Almost 84% of the nearly 8,000 new passenger cars sold in January were EVs, according to data by the Norwegian Information Council for Road Traffic, known as OFV, on Tuesday. That’s up from 53% in the same month last year and compares with about 65% for all of 2021.
Norway has become a “test country” for new electric cars for a number of manufacturers, the council said last month. There is “quite a lot of optimism” regarding the 2025 goal while it’s unclear what will happen to the pace of deliveries to Norway when electrification “really takes off” in the major European countries, it said.
Nineteen out of the 20 most popular car brands were fully electric, led by Audi Q e-tron, Hyundai IONIQ 5 and BMW iX. Only 387 cars with an internal combustion engine were sold.
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