Thursday 4 January 2018

Norway makes wheely good progress on clean car sales

 
More than half of Norway's new car sales in 2017 were electric or hybrid vehicles.

That's according to the Norwegian Road Federation, which says 20.9% were zero emission vehicles, powered mainly by electricity or hydrogen, with hybrids accounting for the other 31.3%.

This represents a significant increase over the previous year, when zero emission and hybrid cars accounted for 15.7% and 24.5% of total sales respectively.

The country has set a goal of selling only zero emission cars from 2025 onwards and offers tax allowances to keep the prices of clean vehicles relatively competitive.

It also offers perks such as free city tolls, ferries, parking and recharging in public car parks, as well as being allowed to drive in bus lanes.

Norway's Secretary General, Christina Bu, said: "The goal of 2025 is ambitious.

"We need to go from 21% market share to 100% in seven years, which means we still have a way to go even if it’s going in the right direction and the increase compared to 2016 is satisfactory."