13.12.2021
In Norway 84,5% of new registrated vehicles were xEV’s in 2021. Making combustion engines a minority in new registration.
With a total market share of 54% for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and 84,5% of new registrations being any kind of electric vehicles, Norway can be seen as the EV leading country. Hearing these numbers the questions raises why that is so and maybe what is the missing point in other countries or markets.
First one could see the geographical aspects. Norway is a relatively huge country in the EU but the most citizens live in the lower part of the country. This leads to shorter distances and a high concentration of EV infrastructure in the south mostly around Oslo for the daily usage. Using the geographical advantages Norway also reaches a renewable energy share of around 98% percent. From a technical point of view and referring to other articles on the blog it then only makes sense to drive BEVs.
Furthermore the list of incentives for buying and using a BEV in Norway is long. According to Norwegian EV owners the exemption from VAT (Value Added Tax; considering a CO2 and NOx (both emission gases) tax combined with the weight of vehicle) plays the major role. VAT is followed by exemption from road toll and other taxes coming from using and owning a car. Financial wise one can understand that it only makes sense to drive this type of car in a country which is one of the most expensive in the EU. Completing the list of incentives in Norway there are low electricity costs, good network of public charging stations, access to bus lanes, free access to parking, charging and ferries.
Incentives by the government as well as an aggressive and fast build up of EV Infrastructure led Norway to its pole position considering market share of EVs today.
Why is this relevant for the Generation Z?
In my opinion the data and lessons given by the development of the EV market in Norway can help our generation understand which potential there is in governmental incentives and investments in EV infrastructure. The data clearly shows that at the end consumption is very much economically driven and that the consumer of mobility in that case decides for the option with the lowest costs - one time investment and longterm usage costs. Therefore we can agree that a goal should be to strengthen the incentives of economic friendly modes of transport.
On the downside the data clearly shows that in Germany for example the development from a combustion centered approach to a fully electricity driven market is long. Germany is geographically larger and transport doesn't concentrates as much as in Norway. Here we have to find solutions for long-distance traveling. Be that a wide supercharger infrastructure or competitive public transport so that long-distance traveling by train becomes the number one choice. Germanys Energy mix is far from 98% renewable which makes it ecologically not yet really effective to switch from a combustion engine to an electric one. In the end compared to the number of population (Norway 5,38 Million; Germany 83,24 Million) it explains it self that the process is much more complicated in Germany.
What does this mean for the automotive industry?
The big difference in governmental regulations as well as geographic aspects shows that especially for the automotive industry there is no one-fit-for-all strategy since the most OEMs serve markets worldwide. Therefore it may seem illogical for the one or other when a company is presenting a new strategy still including combustion engines (for example BMW Power-of-Choice strategy). The shift can't happen as suddenly as one could wish but the economic aspect of the industry responsible for a big part of germanys prosperity should never be underrated too.
Written by: Maxime Schönberg
Sources: https://elbil.no/content/uploads/2016/08/EVS30-Norwegian-EV-policy-paper.pdf ; https://www.statista.com