There are now more electric cars than gas cars on Norway’s roads
Sometime this month, Norway will have more electric cars on its roads than petrol-only vehicles, according to an analysis of Norwegian government data.
The analysis comes courtesy of Bilbransje24, a Norwegian auto industry publication. It used data from Norway’s Road Traffic Information Council (Opplysningsrådet for Veitrafikken, OFV).
Norway releases detailed monthly information about auto sales in the country, which has been helpful for those of us tracking the EV market in the most EV-obsessed country in the world. It set another world record with 94% EV new car market share in August.
Norway has long been a standout, with the highest level of EV market share of any country and an aspiration to end sales of new gas cars by 2025, while other countries and regions focus on a relatively weak 2035 target.
But it even managed to basically meet that 2025 aspiration early, with non-electrified vehicles only making up a single-digit percentage of sales in the country as early as 2021. Some countries even abruptly stopped ICE vehicle sales with only a few days notice as sales continued to drop.
As is the case with most technologies, the last few percent is always a struggle, but we think getting down to single digits might as well be a win (for reference, California’s 2035 “ban” on gas cars still allows up to 20% of vehicle sales to be PHEVs, which do have a combustion engine in them).
And the combined effect of so many years of extremely high EV sales, and extremely low gas-car sales, means that we’ve seen the installed base of gas vehicles shrink as the installed base of EVs continues to rise. And now, finally, those lines have crossed.
There are more electric cars than petrol-only cars on Norway’s roads (as of… today?)
As of the end of last month, there were 751,450 electric cars in service in Norway and 755,244 petrol-only cars, each making up about 26% of the cars on the roads.
Given that EVs are selling at a rate of about ~10,000 vehicles per month, and petrol-only cars are selling at a rate of about…. zero (okay, maybe a few hundred) per month, that means these lines will cross around the middle of this month. So… just about now.
This does leave out one powertrain type though, diesel, which was quite popular in Norway throughout the 2000s and early 2010s. Diesel’s installed-based crossed that of petrol-only vehicles in late 2014, and they have remained the most common vehicles on Norwegian roads since then. There are just over a million diesel vehicles in Norway (that number will drop below a million at the end of this month), so diesel-only still reigns supreme on Norwegian roads, ahead of EVs.
But EVs are growing, and growing more rapidly than diesel ever did. And both petrol-only – which EVs just advanced ahead of – and diesel-only vehicles are dropping in popularity. “Peak diesel” was reached in 2017, though today they make up 35% of Norway’s cars. Peak petrol-car sales were reached in Norway in 2005.
Each of these numbers leave out hybrids, which make up a smaller amount, both plug-in and otherwise. There are around 208k plug-in hybrids and 156k non-plug-in hybrids on the roads in Norway now. The installed base of plug-in hybrids became larger than that of non-plug-in ones back in 2019.
And the installed-base of diesel and petrol vehicles don’t get driven as often as newer, more efficient EVs do, so the disparate travel distances have resulted in an outsized effect on motor fuel sales in the country. Last year, Electrek did an analysis of how Cratering motor fuel sales in Norway show the death spiral that can end oil.
See more: graphs and charts at Bilbransje24’s article
Electrek’s Take
As usual, Norway is showing the rest of the world how this should all work.
Meanwhile, most countries aren’t even close to having new EV sales eclipse new gas car sales, and Norway is already out here with more EVs on the road than gas cars.
For all the complaints and protestations of impossibility, the Nordic countries have by and large left gas behind. All have high EV penetration, led by Norway, and there have not been any of the widespread problems that fossil fuel propaganda constantly tries to convince you that high EV use would lead to.
Maybe instead of listening to ignorant clowns who are committed to increasing harm and costs, we should just take a look at how one of the happiest nations in the world has transformed its transportation system for the better, and take a few notes.
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Mitsubishi is partnering with Ample and Yamoto Transports to deploy an innovative new battery swap network for electric cars in its Japanese home market — but it’s not just for electric cars. Mitsubishi Fuso commercial trucks are getting in on the action, too!
Despite a number of early EV adopters with an overdeveloped concept of ownership, battery swap technology has proven to be both extremely effective and extremely positive to the overall EV ownership experience. And when you see how simple it is to add hundreds of miles of driving in just 100 seconds — quicker, in many cases, than pumping a tank of liquid fuel into an ICE-powered car — you might come around, yourself.
That seems to be what Mitsubishi thinks, anyway, and they’re hoping they’ll be your go-to choice when it’s time to electrify your regional and last-mile commercial delivery fleet(s) by launching a multi-year pilot program to deploy more than 150 battery-swappable commercial electric vehicles and 14 modular battery swapping stations across Tokyo, where the company plans to showcase its “five minute charging” tech in full view of hundreds of commercial fleets and, crucially, the executives of the companies that own and manage them.
A truck like the Mitsubishi eCanter typically requires a full night of AC charging to top off its batteries, and at least an hour or two on DC charging in Japan, according to Fuso. This joint pilot by Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks, and Ample aims to circumvent this issue of forced downtime with its swappable batteries, supporting vehicle uptime by delivering a full charge within minutes. The move is meant to encourage the transport industry’s EV shift while creating a depository of stored energy that can be deployed to the grid in the event of a natural disaster — something Mitsubishi in Japan has been working on for years.
Trucks like the eCanter already serve a number of roles throughout the global truck market, including municipal waste collection, regional delivery support, and more.
The pilot is backed by Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Technology Development Support Project for Promoting New Energy,” with local delivery operator Yamato Transport testing swappable EVs for delivery operations on both its eCanter light-duty trucks and Mitsubishi Minicab kei-class electric vans.
Electrek’s Take
Electrifying the commercial truck fleet is a key part of decarbonizing city truck fleets – not just here in the US, but around the world. I called the eCanter, “a great product for moving stuff around densely packed city streets,” and eliminating the corporate fear of EV charging in the wild just makes it an even better product for that purpose.
Here’s hoping we see more “right size” electric solutions like this one (and more battery swapping tech) in small towns and tight urban environments stateside somewhat sooner than later.
SOURCES | IMAGES: Mitsubishi, Fuso.
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After becoming the first European brand to offer fully electric versions of every model it sells — and at the same price as the ICE models — Opel is going even further, with a new, AWD electric SUV that should give American Jeep fans hope for a new electric Cherokee!
Now part of the Stellantis, rather than GM portfolio of brands, Rüsselsheim-based Opel showed off the first official pictures of its new Opel Grandland Electric AWD — the company’s first all-electric SUV to feature the “Blitz” performance emblem and all-wheel drive.
“Our top-of-the-range Grandland SUV is a milestone for Opel,” says Opel CEO Florian Huettl. “Customers already have a choice of battery-electric drive, plug-in hybrid and hybrid with 48-volt technology. We are now offering even more choice with the Grandland Electric AWD and thus ensuring that our customers can enjoy maximum efficiency and safety in diverse weather and road conditions, combined with plenty of driving fun.”
Stellantis gets it right in Europe
Opel says its new, AWD Grandland is its most aerodynamically efficient model yet, with a drag coefficient (Cd) of just 0.278. That efficiency, paired with similarly efficient electric motors and a 73 kWh li-ion NMC battery give the electric crossover a 501 km (311 mile) WLTP range, while a combined 325 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque should make for suitably spirited acceleration to go along with all that green cred.
Suspension and handling, too, are promised to deliver on what Opel claims is a “typical” Teutonic driving experience in the Grandland AWD:
Both driving pleasure and comfort are further emphasized by dampers with frequency selective damping technology. This unique technology comes as standard on the Grandland Electric AWD and incorporates a second hydraulic circuit in the damper chamber to mechanically adapt the damping force in relation to the frequency. Depending on the situation, road surface conditions and driving style, it enables different damping characteristics for comfortable gliding at high frequencies – i.e. with short impacts such as on cobblestones or a manhole cover – as well as for a sporty, ambitious driving style with more direct contact with the road at low frequencies. The Grandland reacts even more immediately and directly to any command from the driver and, as is typical for Opel, remains stable when braking, cornering and at high speeds on the Autobahn.
OPEL PRESS RELEASE
The Opel Grandland Electric AWD ships with four standard drive modes that include “normal,” eco, sport, and 4WD mode, which simulates locking axles and true 4×4 off-road performance. The ESP and traction control systems adopt specific settings to enhance grip in 4WD mode as well, and maximum power and torque are instantly available.
Electrek’s Take
As you maybe could tell by now, feeding European Stellantis EVs into an AI image generator and asking it to “make them into Jeeps” is one of my new favorite things to do. This new Opel is no different, and the resulting image (above) paired with the models’ stated specs give me hope that the next wave of Jeep EVs will do better than the Wagoneer S at attracting buyers. All they really need, I think, is the right name — and the right price, to be winners.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Opel.
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Like a 90s “gifted” kid that was supposed to be a lot of things, the electric Jeep Wagoneer S never really found its place — but with dealers discounting the Jeep brands forward-looking flagship by nearly $25,000, it might be time to give the go-fast Wagoneer S a second look.
SKIP THE STORY: get straight to the deals.
Whether we’re talking about Mercedes-Benz, Cerberus, Fiat, or even Enzo Ferrari, outsiders have labeled Jeep as a potentially premium brand that could, “if managed properly,” command luxury-level prices all over the globe. That hasn’t happened, and Stellantis is just the latest in a long line of companies to sink massive capital into the brand only to realize that people will not, in fact, spend Mercedes money on a Jeep.
That said, the Jeep Wagoneer S is not a bad car (and neither is its totally different, hideously massive, ICE-powered Wagoneer sibling, frankly). Built on the same Stellantis STLA Large vehicle platform that underpins the sporty Charger Daytona EVs, the confusingly-named Wagoneer S packs dual electric motors putting out almost 600 hp. That’s good enough to scoot the ‘ute 0 to 60 mph in a stomach-turning 3.5 seconds and enough, on paper, to convince Stellantis executives that they had developed a real, market-ready alternative to the Tesla Model Y.
With the wrong name and a sky-high starting price of $66,995 (not including the $1,795 destination fee), however, that demand didn’t materialize, leaving the Wagoneer S languishing on dealer lots across the country.
That could be about to change, however, thanks to big discounts on Wagoneer S being reported at CDJR dealers in several states, according to our friends at the Car Dealership Guy podcast.
- Jimmy Britt Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Georgia, has a Wagoneer S with an MSRP of $67,590 listed at $43,104 ($24,486 off)
- In Florida, Taverna Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Fiat has a $67,590 Wagoneer S slashed to $43,138 ($24,452 off)
- Chris Nikel Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Fiat in Oklahoma has a Wagoneer S listed for $43,425 ($24,165 off)
“Stellantis bet big on electric versions of iconic American brands like Jeep and Dodge, but consumers aren’t buying the premise,” writes CDG’s Marcus Amick. “(Stellantis’ dealer body) is now stuck with expensive EVs that need huge discounts to move, eating into already thin margins while competitors focus on [more] profitable gas-powered vehicles.”
All of which is to say: if you’ve found yourself drawn to the Jeep Wagoneer S, but couldn’t quite stomach the $70,000+ window stickers, you might want to check in with your local Jeep dealer and see how you feel about it at a JCPenneys-like 30% off!
Jeep Wagoneer S gallery
SOURCES | IMAGES: Car Dealership Guy, CarScoops, and CarsDirect.
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