According to TheKoreaTimes, Hyundai Motor Co said on Sunday that it has decided to start selling only electric vehicles (EVs) in Norway this year.
The automaker has revealed its ambitions to set a new milestone in the Scandinavian country in 2023, according to Hyundai Motor Europe. The automaker ends sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) at the end of 2022 and starts selling only electric vehicles in Norway, in what will be its first foray into the global market.
“Our European branch has decided to sell electric vehicles only in Norway, and the head office in Seoul has confirmed this,” said a Hyundai executive.
The company has already announced plans to stop selling internal combustion engine vehicles in Europe from 2035 and to sell only electric vehicles globally by 2040. Its decision to stop selling diesel cars in Norway delayed its original plan in the country by 12 years. There is a reason for this, as Norway was one of the earliest adopters in the electric vehicle market. The country is offering various incentives with the goal of converting all new car sales to electric vehicles by 2025.
As of November, 81.6 percent of new cars registered in Norway were electric, showing that the Scandinavian country is on track with its eco-friendly plans.
PHEV models were mainly sold in the Norwegian market before, accounting for 17.4% of the market as of November 2020. As of last year, however, its sales share fell to 7.7 percent, ceding its top spot to electric cars. During the same period, hybrids accounted for 7.3 percent of the market, compared with 2.2 percent for diesel.
