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Norway declares victory in move away from gas cars

Oct 16, 2025, 6:51am EDT
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Cars get charged at a charging point in Oslo, Norway.
Leonhard Foeger/Reuters

Norway declared victory in its effort to phase out gas car sales by 2025.

A slew of tax exemptions, free access to toll roads, and other incentives have rapidly driven uptake of electric vehicles in the country; last year, 89% of all cars sold were electric, and that figure has risen to over 95% this year.

Oslo will now start to roll back some tax exemptions over the next two years.

Norway is an outlier, though: About one in five cars sold in Europe in 2024 was electric, and several larger European markets, including Germany and France, have begun rolling back subsidies. After years of increasing European market share, EV growth has slowed, the International Energy Agency reported this year.

A chart showing electric vehicle share of new car sales 2024, by country.
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