Norway plans to do away with petrol cars as early as 2025. Will Luxembourg be able to do so?
Getty Images
Norway has made history by becoming the first country where electric vehicles (EVs) outnumber petrol cars. Of the 2.8 million registered private cars, 754,303 are fully electric, outnumbering 753,905 petrol cars. This result was made possible by incentive policies that equalise the prices of EVs and internal combustion engine cars, and a record 94% share of electric car sales in August 2024. By comparison, in the European Union, the share of EVs in new sales was only 14.4 per cent.
Jøvind Sulberg Thorsen, director of the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV), called it a historic breakthrough: "Just ten years ago, such a scenario seemed impossible". The achievement coincided with Norway's ambitious goal of selling only zero-emission cars by 2025, a decade ahead of EU plans.
Nevertheless, the drive towards decarbonisation presents Norway with a difficult dilemma. Despite advances in clean transport, the country remains a major exporter of oil and gas. As Askeir Thomasgaard of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology has pointed out, natural gas plays a key role in Europe's energy security, but the industry also requires a transition to zero emissions through carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.
One such solution is a recent development, the Northern Lights project in Eigarden, which has the capacity to store 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 annually in the first phase. Thomasgaard emphasises that an integrated approach to climate policy is the only effective way forward. Electrification takes centre stage, from an almost entirely renewable national grid to reducing emissions in transport and industry. The next challenge is to convert heavy transport and freight transport to EVs, achieving similar success as with passenger cars.
Norway demonstrates to the world that the future of transport is already here, but at the same time reminds us of the complexity of the path to full decarbonisation in an oil-dependent environment. It is an example to follow and at the same time a reason to reflect on the global challenges of the energy transition.
Luxembourg is not yet in a position to replicate the success of its northern comrade. Although the Grand Duchy has taken the idea of switching to renewable energy and clean transport to the masses, it is still a long way from realising its ambitious goals.
Regular efforts and steady movement towards an energy transition are certainly helping the country, but right now it doesn't have the same resources and capabilities that Norway has. That said, though, electric cars remain quite popular: in 2023 alone, sales of electric cars grew 127% compared to 2022. 2024 is expected to continue the positive trend.
