---
title: "Nearly a Third of Norway’s 2018 New Car Sales Were Electric"
description: "Three out of every ten new cars sold in Norway last year were electric, which is the highest percentage in the world by a long shot."
date: "2019-01-02"
modified: "2019-01-02"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/cars-norway-electric"
categories:
  - "Advanced Transport"
tags:
  - "electric cars"
  - "energy"
  - "environment"
  - "norway"
  - "the digest"
  - "transport"
---

# Nearly a Third of Norway’s 2018 New Car Sales Were Electric

![Three out of every ten new cars sold in Norway last year were electric, which is the highest percentage in the world by a long shot.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/cars-norway-electric.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Pixabay/Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Climbing Numbers

Norway just hit a major milestone on its [mission to stop](<https://money.cnn.com/2017/07/26/autos/countries-that-are-banning-gas-cars-for-electric/index.html>) selling gas-powered vehicles by 2025. Over the entire course of 2018, 31.2 percent of all the new cars sold in the country were entirely powered by electricity instead of fossil fuels, [according to *Reuters*](<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-autos/norways-electric-cars-zip-to-new-record-almost-a-third-of-all-sales-idUSKCN1OW0YP?utm_source=reddit.com>).

That's the [highest percentage worldwide](<https://futurism.com/record-norway-cars-electric-hybrid>), with Iceland in a distant second place with 12 percent, and a dismal 2.2 percent and 1.2 percent in China and the U.S., respectively. Just last year, only 21 percent of new cars sold in Norway were electric — a striking case study in how policy changes can affect a whole country's environmental impact.

## Big Fraction, Small Number

Too often, though, a single percentage can obscure the scale of an accomplishment. According to *Reuters*, some 148,000 cars were sold in Norway in 2018. To put that into perspective, just under 1.4 million new vehicles were [sold in the U.S. in November alone](<https://www.marklines.com/en/statistics/flash_sales/salesfig_usa_2018>), 413,500 of which were passenger cars.

So while Norway's ongoing plan to curb vehicular greenhouse gas emissions is a monumental undertaking and that 31 percent mark represents a great shift in attitudes toward more environmentally-friendly lifestyles. But all things considered, it's not a ­*huge* numbers of gas guzzlers that were taken off the road.

## What it Will Take

There are a few challenges in the way of Norway's ambitious plan to take gas-powered vehicles out of dealerships by 2025. Most importantly, according to *Reuters*, is the challenge of at-home charging.

Given that few people have dedicated, private places to park, full adoption of electric vehicles may be a harder sell than in an area where everyone has a garage or [access to a charging station](<https://futurism.com/electric-vehicles-future-batteries-past>).

Even so, Norway is working hard to incentivize people to go electric, offering tax credits as well as free charging docks to people who go green — and these figures demonstrate that the approach seems to get results.

**READ MORE:** [Norway's electric cars zip to new record: almost a third of all sales](<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-autos/norways-electric-cars-zip-to-new-record-almost-a-third-of-all-sales-idUSKCN1OW0YP?utm_source=reddit.com>) \[*Reuters*\]

***More on electric vehicles:*** ***[CALIFORNIA IS INSTALLING CHARGERS FOR A TYPE OF ELECTRIC CAR THAT DOESN’T EXIST YET](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/california-chargers-electric-cars>)***

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)