According to foreign media reports, Volkswagen will soon cease the sale of internal combustion engine cars in Norway. The Norwegian Volkswagen car importer, Møller Mobility Group, confirmed that Volkswagen plans to complete its internal combustion engine car orders in Norway by December 2023. After that, only electric models will be sold in the country.
Volkswagen's move isn't surprising. Norway has long been the global leader in terms of electric vehicle adoption. Currently, electric cars account for over 20% of the total passenger vehicles in Norway. Among new passenger vehicle sales in Norway, electric vehicles make up nearly 84%. According to the Norwegian Road Federation, this number rises to 90% when plug-in hybrid vehicles are included. Furthermore, the Norwegian government plans to ban the sale of internal combustion engine cars from 2025, the earliest such ban of any country.
Over the past ten years, Norway has imported more than 102,000 Volkswagen electric passenger cars. As of the end of September this year, the Volkswagen ID.4, with 5,832 new registrations, ranked second in the sales of all car models in Norway, while the ID.3, with 2,615 units sold, ranked eighth.
The highest-selling electric car model in Norway is the Tesla Model Y. In the first half of this year, the market share of this model exceeded 20%, with a cumulative sales volume of 15,452 units. To date this year, the Model Y's share of new passenger car registrations in Norway has nearly reached one quarter.
As early as 2012-2013, Tesla sparked the electric vehicle trend in Norway with its Model S. Therefore, it can be said that Tesla played a significant role in popularizing electric vehicles in Norway. Other car manufacturers soon followed suit. Specifically for Volkswagen, the brand began selling purely electric cars in Norway from 2013.
The Norwegian government has long provided generous incentives for electric vehicles. However, with the increasing number of electric cars, the country has started to reduce these incentives. Another reason for Norway's reduction in incentives is to encourage people to reduce private car usage and instead opt for walking, cycling, and public transportation.
Starting this year, Norway began imposing a 25% value-added tax on electric cars priced above 500,000 Norwegian kroner. The new value-added tax plan is dynamic, meaning the more expensive the electric car, the higher the tax.
