Norway leading on EVs – as the Guardian reports that Norway, the frontrunner in the take up of electric vehicles, shifted a record low number of new fossil-fuel cars last month, the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council (OFV) has revealed
Only seven petrol, 29 hybrid and 98 diesel cars were registered, while more than 2,000 battery electric vehicles were sold. Across the board car sales were low in January as motorists rushed to buy cars in December to avoid January tax rises – but the decline of petrol cars comes as the country moves closer to fully phasing out the sale of polluting internal combustion engines.
Battery electric vehicles made up 95.9% of new-car sales in Norway last year due to the high carbon taxes, generous EV subsidies and the lack of a powerful lobby to oppose the transition to ‘cleaner vehicles’.
The secretary general of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, Christina Bu, said the data for 2025 “certainly doesn’t mean the job is over. “Two out of three people still drive fossil-fuel cars,” she told the Norwegian public broadcaster, NRK. “If they are to have the opportunity to choose electric cars, we must be just as ambitious in 2026.”
Meanwhile here electric vehicles sales took a sector-shuddering ‘dip’ in January with registrations rising by just 0.1 per cent in the first month of 2026. Just 29,654 EVs were sold last month, which is only 20 more battery cars than were registered in January 2025.
With car sales across all fuel types rising 3.4%to 144,127 units, it means EVs represented only 20.6%market share in January, figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show. This is the lowest market share since April 2025 and well below the 33% binding sales targets set out by the government’s Zero Emission Vehicle mandate.
Experts also believe the Chancellor’s recently announced pay per mile tax on EVs due to come into force in 2028 – has already started to reduce EV demand. Maybe a suitable subject for a U-turn?