Gas and Diesel Cars Could Be Banned in Norway by 2025

"Norway’s four main political parties have been discussing a possible ban on new gasoline-powered car sales (diesel or petrol) for quite some time, but they were not able to come to an understanding until now, according to a new report from Dagens Næringsliv (paywall), an important newspaper in Norway," writes Fred Lambert, managing editor and main writer at Electrek, "a news site tracking the transition from fossil fuel transportation to electric and the surrounding clean ecosystems."

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions

"Over half of Norway’s energy needs are met using renewable power sources," writes Casey Williams, editorial fellow of The Huffington Post.

 Since charging an electric car requires drawing power from the national power grid, switching to exclusively electric cars in Norway could cut greenhouse gas emissions more than doing so in, say, the U.S., where renewables currently make up only 13 percent of the energy mix.

The Netherlands, India

In March, Lambert wrote that the Netherlands was considering a ban on such vehicles starting in 2025 and India by 2030.

Norway’s initiative looks like it could be the first made into law and would only allow zero-emission vehicles to be sold in the country starting in less than a decade...but a little more work will be needed before the country can say goodbye to gas.

Oil exporter

The irony of being the world's 15th largest oil producer in 2014 and 11th largest oil exporter in 2015 can not be escaped. Revenues from oil exports helped Norway to subsidize the sale and operating costs of electric vehicles (EVs), making the Scandinavian country the world's most friendly EV country.

EV friendly but....

However, it's important to distinguish between new car sales of EVs and the proportion of the vehicle fleet, as David Jolly of The New York Times wrote on Oct. 16, 2015 (also posted here).

Though still only 2 percent, the figure is double that of the runner-up, the Netherlands, and is growing faster than anywhere else in the world. More than one-fifth of new car sales in Norway are of electric vehicles.