The global electric vehicle (EV) revolution reached another milestone last month as EVs made up 37 percent share of Norway’s car market.
Norway understands the future of ground transport is electric and has been pushing EVs harder than almost any other country in the world with incentives such as an exemption from the 25 percent VAT tax for new cars.
In December, the country hit 100,000 zero-emission EVs on the road, and they are projected to quadruple to 400,000 by 2020. These numbers are especially remarkable for a country of only 5.2 million people. Over five percent of all of Norway’s cars are EVs, up from one percent two years ago.
Norway’s transportation minister says it is “realistic” that sales of new fuel-burning cars could end by 2025. EVs may win on straight economics then, but the country — and others — have been considering outright bans.
Battery prices have been dropping much faster than anyone expected — and China launched a massive scale up in both batteries and EVs in recent years.
EV sales have been soaring worldwide. By 2025, more than 37 million fully electric vehicles are expected to be on the road globally, according to Navigant Research, and those EVs will be “cost competitive” without subsidies.
No wonder every country is racing to be the EV leader — or, rather, every country but one. America’s science-denying president is committed to killing domestic climate action and slashing federal clean energy funding. And he’s in bed with the enemies of EVs, such as as Big Oil and Vladimir Putin. If Trump keeps his campaign pledge to promote oil rather than clear air, U.S. workers could miss out on one of the biggest new job-creating industries of the next quarter century.