Norway in 2017: in 2025 all new cars would be zero-emission. They were 95.9%
Government of Norway5 April 2017 · National Transport Plan 2018–2029 (white paper Meld. St. 33)
«assumes that new passenger cars and light vans will be zero-emission vehicles in 2025»
In 2025 electric cars were 95.9% of new passenger cars (169,569 of 176,847).
When the plan was written electric cars were 20.8% of new cars; in 2022, 79.3%. Selling other cars was never banned.
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Norway exempted electric cars from taxes and duties, and their share of sales grew faster than anywhere else. In its 2017 transport plan the government assumed that in 2025 all new cars would be zero-emission. Here is the share of electric cars among new cars.
First the words: who said it, when and where, verbatim (translations are ours). Answer Yes or No, or just open the answer: the stamp is the outcome, below it what came of it. On the chart the dark line is the fact year by year up to the deadline, the pale one after it; the blue dashed line is the promised number from the year of the words to the deadline, the light band the time the promise gave; the ring on the line is when it was said, the ring in the stamp’s colour the fact in the deadline year, beside it how far it landed from the goal. The numbers on the right are the scale.
- Government of Norway, National Transport Plan 2018–2029 (white paper Meld. St. 33) quote
«legger til grunn at nye personbiler og lette varebiler skal være nullutslippskjøretøy i 2025» — assumes that new passenger cars and light vans will be zero-emission vehicles in 2025
- What happened nearly
In 2025 electric cars were 95.9% of new passenger cars (169,569 of 176,847).
Plan: the National Transport Plan 2018–2029, report to the Storting Meld. St. 33 (2016–2017), 5 April 2017. Fact: Statistics Norway, table 14020, new cars by fuel type. Outcome: «came true» — the promised number reached by the deadline («about» within 5%), an event happened before the end of the year promised; «exceeded» — with room to spare; «nearly» — short by no more than 10%; «late» — reached, but after the deadline; «did not come true» — not reached; «came true, then undone» — reached, then reversed. The deadline is the end of the year named.
The plan is neither a pledge nor a ban but a planning assumption («legger til grunn»). Hydrogen cars are zero-emission too, but there are only a handful. In January–September 2026 electric cars were 97.9%.
A question for this picture
The last few per cent to a hundred are the hardest: who buys a new car that is not electric?