The market share of electric cars, which was only a fraction of that of gasoline cars a few years ago, has reached 50 percent in Norway. Over the past 12 months, an identical number of electric vehicles as gasoline cars have been manufactured in Norway, demonstrating the country’s exponential adoption of electric cars.

Electric Cars Favored Over Gasoline Cars

In Norway, a liter of gasoline costs around $2, a rate that is substantially higher than in other places such as South Korea and Japan that are also known to have expensive gasoline. In contrast to high gasoline costs and taxes on conventional vehicles, the Norwegian government does not impose tax on the sale of electric vehicles, allowing consumers to obtain electric cars at around 50 percent of the cost required to purchase gasoline-powered vehicles.

According to a report by the Norwegian government entitled “Sales of Petroleum Products,” the demand for petroleum products have fallen for the first time in history, primarily due to the rapid adoption of electric vehicles and the drop in demand for gasoline and fuel.

“Motor gasoline sales declined by 2.9%, dutiable diesel fell by 2.7%, and duty-free diesel declined by 2.6%. This decline follows sales that were flat in 2014, and then grew by 1% in 2015 and 3.2% in 2016. Overall petroleum product sales declined by 2.2%, although some categories of consumption, such as heavy fuel oil, jet kerosene, and other petroleum products all showed higher consumption,” the government’s report read.

The embrace of electric vehicles in Norway can be attributed to newly implemented policies of the Norwegian government, and its intent to ensure all vehicles sold in the country are electric from 2025 onwards.

Read more: NullTX