Norway Buries the Combustion Engine: 97% of New Cars Are Now Electric
Norway has done what most countries only dream about. The internal combustion engine is practically extinct there. This year, electric cars account for more than 97% of all new registrations, while petrol and diesel models have slipped into the margins, surviving as niche curiosities.
While the rest of Europe still debates whether the 2035 ban on combustion engines is realistic, Norway is proving it can happen much sooner, and entirely voluntarily. In a country of just 5.5 million people, the electric car is no longer the future, but the norm.
Electric Dominance Reaches Record Levels
June 2025 numbers were staggering. Out of 18,376 new vehicles registered that month, 17,799 were fully electric, giving EVs a 96.9% market share. The first half of the year averaged over 92%. Petrol and diesel sales have fallen so low that statisticians call them a rounding error. The few still sold tend to be clearance models or exceptions for certain company fleets.
The biggest winners are Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo, each benefitting from Norwegian buyers’ clear decision to leave the petrol era behind.
Why Norway? A Simple Formula of Taxes and Logic
The answer lies in a mix of tax policy and mindset. Electric cars in Norway are exempt from import duties and purchase taxes, while buying a petrol car is treated like acquiring a luxury yacht. The entire country is covered with fast chargers, and nearly all electricity comes from renewable sources.
The result resembles a national experiment. When the government gives consumers a clear choice and tangible benefits, behaviour changes overnight. Norwegians no longer buy electric cars out of ecological guilt. They buy them because they make sense — cheaper to run, easier to live with, and simply more practical.
The End of an Era
The age of combustion engines in Norway is not winding down, it’s over. What once seemed like a utopian vision of an all-electric future is already an everyday reality on the streets of Oslo.
