Norway's electric car mix rises to 54 per cent

Sales of pure-electric cars in Norway overtook those powered by petrol, diesel and hybrid engines in 2020, with Volkswagen Group beating Tesla as the country's best-selling EV brand.

Last year, battery-electric vehicles accounted for 54.3 per cent of all new car sales in Norway, up from 42.9 per cent in 2019, which itself is a huge leap forward over the one per cent mix from 2010.

Out of the 141,412 vehicles sold, an impressive 76,789 were fully electric, according to the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV), which predicts that Norway is well on track to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2025.

Helping motivate buyers to plump for EVs, the Norwegian government exempts battery-powered cars from all taxes.

Perhaps more impressive, in the final months of 2020, electric cars drew an incredible 66.7 per cent share of the car market.

Perhaps surprisingly, the best-selling car in Norway in 2020 was the Audi e-tron, overtaking last year's winning Tesla Model 3.

Next year, analysts expect electric cars to account for more than 65 per cent of all new vehicles sold in Norway.

Unsurprisingly, in the wake of high-profile emissions-cheating scandals, diesel-powered cars were hit hardest in Norway last year, accounting for only 8.6 per cent of sales – a huge fall from the 75.7 per cent mix of all cars sold back in 2011.