How did Norway, which is about to become the world's first pure electric vehicle country, do it?

On November 29, Norway is about to complete its transition from fuel vehicles to electric vehicles, becoming the first country in the world to sell new cars entirely on electric vehicles.

On November 29, Norway is about to complete its transition from fuel vehicles to electric vehicles, becoming the first country in the world to sell new cars entirely on electric vehicles.
In Norway, Toyota has increased its electric models from one to five to enrich its lineup to compete with Tesla; gas stations are removing fuel pumps to make room for charging stations; even nursing homes in rural inland areas are switching to electric vehicles during the months-long Arctic winter.
All these signs indicate that the Nordic country is undergoing a dramatic change: it is about to become the first market in the world to almost completely eliminate the sale of new fuel vehicles.
This transformation has been completed at an astonishing speed. Although Norway has long introduced incentives to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles, mainly to support short-lived local startups, the adoption of electric vehicles has only begun to accelerate in recent years as the market has become more abundant. Once the inflection point is reached, the speed of adoption increases rapidly.
Despite the cancellation of some tax incentives, electric vehicles still accounted for 94% of new car sales in October this year, almost twice as much as China, bringing Norway close to its goal of stopping the addition of new fuel vehicles next year.
Norway’s progress in the electric vehicle transition is very different from other regions. Across Europe, electric vehicle sales have fallen this year. The United States has been slow to move toward zero-emission vehicles, and Trump’s presidency could slow progress further.
Norway has some unique advantages in driving this transition, especially its oil and gas wealth (investable in energy transition) and the consensus of successive governments on the need to reduce transportation emissions. However, the cold climate and low population density pose challenges to the transition. In addition, as a mature market, Norway is also a big challenge to change ingrained habits, making Norway an important reference case for other developed countries in the automotive transition.
“The sales volume of this market is not large, but it provides valuable lessons for other countries to make future transitions,” said Piotr Pawlak, president of Toyota Norway.

•Tesla replaces Toyota
The gradual end of the era of fuel vehicles has brought changes both big and small. In the automotive field, Tesla has replaced Toyota and Volkswagen as Norway’s most popular brand. Chinese manufacturers such as NIO and BYD are also expanding their market. There are now more than 160 electric models on the Norwegian market, compared with less than 10 a decade ago.

Gas stations have to rethink their business models. Repair shops need to invest in high-voltage power facilities. Although electric vehicles take less time to repair, their rapid adoption puts repair shops under greater service pressure.
There are still some unresolved issues, such as the disposal of batteries after electric vehicles are scrapped. Despite Norway's success, fuel vehicles still account for about three-quarters of cars on the road. As for commercial vehicles, the transformation has just begun.
To study the significance of this transformation, Bloomberg set out from remote Lundalen, where electric vehicle penetration ranks low in Norway, to Oslo, where fuel vehicles are being phased out.

•Questions about remote areas
In the sparsely populated inland areas of Norway, roads pass through mountains and dense evergreen forests, and towns are sparse and scattered.
In the Lundalen Valley, there is a museum dedicated to the difficult history of the area. It is open only from July to early September each year, when there is less risk of visitors being trapped in ice and snow. However, even here, the future of the automotive industry has arrived, with two bright green charging piles in the parking lot.
The local municipality also bought seven compact electric SUVs from Toyota, mainly for home visits by medical staff at local nursing homes. The vehicles arrived last summer and performed well in their first winter, said Tore Hornseth, business manager at Lundalen.
“Initially, there was a lot of unnecessary skepticism, which there always is,” Hornseth said.
But at May & Fred’s Fish and Leisure store in the neighboring village of Arkrestrommen, skepticism persists. Sondre Bjornstad Noren, a wildlife management student who works part-time at the store, said he drives his old Volkswagen station wagon instead of his father’s electric car when they go fishing because it can handle rough roads and is more practical.
This nostalgia for gasoline cars can be seen across Norway. In Norway, even if people stop buying new cars, they still keep traditional gasoline cars, causing these cars to get older and older. Now, the age of gasoline cars in Norway has risen from 16 years in 2020 to 19 years. Diesel vehicles are aging similarly to cars, according to data from the Norwegian National Road Federation (OFV).
Sales of used conventional models in Norway have also fallen this year, suggesting people prefer to keep them. Still, the number of these fuel-powered vehicles is falling, down 1 million from 20 years ago. And they are being used much less often, driving just a quarter of all vehicles and using 70% less fuel.
Demand for diesel is falling more slowly, mainly because buses and trucks still rely on diesel. The penetration of electric vehicles for commercial vehicles is 29%, less than a third of that for private cars, because government incentives for commercial vehicles are not as large as for private cars and there are fewer models to choose from.

•Electric carnival in big cities
In downtown Oslo, the dominance of electric vehicles is clear. Chinese brands such as Zeekr, BYD, Hongqi and Xiaopeng are competing for prime sales locations.
More than three years ago, An Ho, general manager of NIO Norway, was looking for a location for the company's first showroom in Europe. At the time, there were only a few Chinese brands in Norway, but now the choice has increased significantly.
Traditional car manufacturers are also starting to move into electric vehicles. Hyundai stopped selling gas-powered cars in Norway last year. Other brands under the Stratis Group, including Peugeot, Opel and Fiat, have made the same decision. Volkswagen's Audi sells an RS performance model for enthusiasts, but almost all of its other models are electric. Toyota will continue to sell hybrids while increasing its electric models.
Norway's large independent car retailers have also joined the transformation. Moller stopped selling traditional gas-powered Volkswagen brand models in January this year. Although Bertel O. Steen has retained gas-powered cars while transitioning to electric vehicles, it also believes that electric vehicles are the mainstream trend, which is beyond doubt.
"In the past, if you wanted to buy an electric car, you needed to justify your choice," said Simen Heggestad Nilsen, general manager of Bertel O. Steen's dealership in Lorenskog, a suburb of Oslo. "Now it's the other way around."
To meet the electricity demand brought by electric vehicles, Oslo's grid operator Elvia must strengthen and expand the power network, often requiring separate power stations and transformers to serve remote areas. However, Morten Schau, an Elvia spokesman, said that because cars and buses are usually charged during off-peak hours, the overall power supply burden is within control.

With electric cars accounting for 40% of the city's total car fleet, air quality has improved, with concentrations of smog-causing nitrogen oxides falling. However, the city still deals with particulate matter, which comes mainly from road and tire wear. Tobias Wolf, Oslo's chief engineer for air quality, said electric models have not significantly exacerbated the problem, but they have not brought significant improvements either.
"Electrified road traffic is not a perfect solution," he said in his office, which overlooks a boxy white test station. "The air quality problem is very complex."

•Pride and nostalgia
Overall, Norway is proud to be the first country in the world to complete the transition from fuel vehicles to electric vehicles, but people still have nostalgia for fuel vehicles, and occasionally take traditional fuel vehicles out for a spin, which has eased the pressure of the transition to a certain extent and reduced resistance.
Frode Myhr is an art installer at the National Museum of Norway and a classic car enthusiast. He mainly relies on bicycles to get around, but still likes to drive his Ferrari. People around him have mixed reactions to this.