Norway 95% new cars battery-electric

Norway’s road traffic information council, OFV, said on January 2 that battery-electric vehicles accounted for 95.9% of all new passenger-car registrations in 2025, putting the country within reach of its long-stated goal that all new cars sold by 2025 should be zero-emission. OFV said 179,550 new passenger cars were registered during the year, up 39.5% from 2024. The figures, which were later echoed by the Norwegian EV Association, were the data behind a social-media post recirculating this weekend about Norway’s electric-car market. ### Did Norway actually hit 95% battery-electric sales? OFV said the full-year battery-electric share was 95.9% in 2025, not just 95%, and described the result as the point at which the political target set a decade earlier had been reached. The remaining 4.1% of new-car sales consisted of petrol, diesel and hybrid models, according to OFV’s year-end release. (ofv.no) The Norwegian EV Association said the 2025 result was a record and marked an increase from 88.9% in 2024. Its market page lists the same 95.9% figure for fully electric passenger cars sold in 2025. ### Which official data is the claim based on? The Norwegian EV Association said its sales statistics are sourced from Statens vegvesen, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. (ofv.no) OFV’s releases are based on national first-registration data for new passenger cars in Norway. OFV said 2025 was also the year electric cars passed diesel cars to become the largest powertrain in Norway’s total passenger-car fleet. (elbil.no) Reuters, citing the OFV data on January 2, reported that almost all new cars registered in Norway last year were fully electric. ### What pushed Norway that close to an all-electric market? The Norwegian government said its electric-car rollout has been driven by a mix of tax rules and incentives, including exemption from purchase tax and a VAT benefit for battery-electric passenger vehicles up to a threshold. (elbil.no) A government notification published in late 2024 said the VAT measures were prolonged from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2026, with the zero VAT rate applying up to NOK 500,000. (ofv.no) The government also said electric cars have benefited from lower toll-road rates and discounted ferry prices, while charging infrastructure has been treated as a necessary condition for rapid adoption. Norway’s national charging strategy says charging capacity must expand quickly enough to keep pace with vehicle uptake. (regjeringen.no) ### Was there a late-2025 rush to buy cars? OFV said December 2025 was unusually strong, with 35,188 new passenger cars registered that month, up 157.8% from a year earlier. OFV linked the year-end surge to high delivery volumes, broad sales campaigns and tax-rule changes due from January 1, 2026. Reuters reported that carmakers and buyers moved to beat a January tax increase, and said the battery-electric share in December was almost 98%. (regjeringen.no) OFV’s December figure was 97.6%, according to reporting that cited the council’s release. ### What changes in 2026? Norway’s government said in its 2026 budget proposal that it would reduce the VAT exemption threshold for electric cars from NOK 500,000 to NOK 300,000, with the change proposed from January 1, 2026. (ofv.no) The same proposal said the exemption would be removed entirely from 2027. The next official checkpoints are the monthly registration releases from OFV and the Norwegian EV Association’s market updates, which continue to publish national sales data sourced from Norwegian road-registration authorities. (uk.finance.yahoo.com) (elbil.no) (regjeringen.no)