Electric vehicles will account for 79.3 percent of new car sales in Norway in 2022, up from 65 percent in 2021, or nearly four-fifths of new cars sold last year, figures from the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) showed on Monday. It’s an electric car. Norway, with 5.5 million inhabitants, has the highest proportion of electric vehicles in the world, registration data show, making it a testing ground for automakers to roll out EV models.
The top seller was Elon Musk’s Tesla, which sold more cars in Norway than any other brand for the second year in a row.
But some in the car industry say Norway’s new tax could thwart the country’s goal of becoming the first country to stop selling gasoline-powered cars by 2025.
So far, Norway has been exempt from taxes on pure electric vehicles. While the subsidies help cut emissions, Norway’s finance ministry says they cost the government about $4 billion in lost revenue in 2022.
Now, the Norwegian government is looking to limit incentives for high-end cars and introduce a new weight-based car tax.
Thor Egil Braadland of the Norwegian Automobile Federation said that worried him.
“The government is now starting to raise taxes on electric vehicles and we are concerned that this will reduce electric vehicle sales.”
The Norwegian government has defended its EV policy, with Transport State Secretary Johan Vasara saying that since EVs have become the new normal for Norwegians, “it means we have to look at how social money is spent.”
