--- title: Lessons From Norway About How to Switch to Electric Vehicles description: Christina Bu, secretary general of the Norwegian EV Association, writes that strong demand-side policies can incentivize new-car buys to purchase electric vehicles. canonical: https://time.com/6133180/norway-electric-vehicles/ author: Christina Bu article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-01-07T12:00:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:47.259Z article:section: Ideas og:title: What Norway Can Teach the World About Electric Vehicles og:description: "It took us only 10 years to move from 1% to 65%, and next year I believe we will pass 80%". og:url: https://time.com/6133180/norway-electric-vehicles/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta016b6624c230b12/698a213c22fb8553a3e2cff3/Climate-Goals-03GREEN.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Electric Cars In Oslo As Global Gasoline Consumption Has All But Peaked og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Norway Can Teach the World About Electric Vehicles twitter:description: "It took us only 10 years to move from 1% to 65%, and next year I believe we will pass 80%". twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta016b6624c230b12/698a213c22fb8553a3e2cff3/Climate-Goals-03GREEN.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Norway Can Teach the World About Switching to Electric Vehicles > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=c981cb0e-7a22-4fd0-86ad-5f085ac545a1&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Sam Jacobs, Editor-in-Chief | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership Globally minded knowledge seekers. Readers who turn to journalism to understand the world, with meaningful concentrations among educators, students, media professionals, civic institutions and knowledge workers. ### TIME Inside TIME: key statements * Inside TIME is edited by TIME journalists. Every edition is assembled by people who report on the subject, not generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923, and its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting. Readers can trust what they read. * Inside TIME is free. Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=c981cb0e-7a22-4fd0-86ad-5f085ac545a1&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/subscribe?i=c981cb0e-7a22-4fd0-86ad-5f085ac545a1&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What is Inside TIME? Inside TIME is a twice-weekly newsletter written by TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs. It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Generation Now: The Fight for Climate Justice [Watch (HLS stream): Generation Now: The Fight for Climate Justice](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/CIHrS8Mv.m3u8) (14:03)  _Published 2021-11-05. Today’s young people are coming of age just as the stable climate that has allowed previous generations to thrive on our planet begins to visibly break down—and just before our last chance to stop it falls out of reach._ by [Christina Bu](https://time.com/author/christina-bu/) ## Christina Bu Jan 7, 2022 12:00 PM UTC  Electric vehicles (EV) sit parked at charging stations at Kongens gate near Akershus festning in Oslo, Norway, on Monday, Nov. 21, 2016\. The International Energy Agency forecasts that global gasoline consumption has all but peaked as more efficient cars and the advent of electric vehicles from new players such as Tesla Motors Inc. halt demand growth in the next 25 years. Electric vehicles (EV) sit parked at charging stations at Kongens gate near Akershus festning in Oslo, Norway, on Monday, Nov. 21, 2016\. The International Energy Agency forecasts that global gasoline consumption has all but peaked as more efficient cars and the advent of electric vehicles from new players such as Tesla Motors Inc. halt demand growth in the next 25 years. Fredrik Bjerknes—Bloomberg/Get—© 2016 Bloomberg Finance LP by [Christina Bu](https://time.com/author/christina-bu/) ## Christina Bu Jan 7, 2022 12:00 PM UTC I live in a country far north, stretching way above the Arctic Circle, with long driving distances, rugged mountains and a very cold climate. Norway is not the most likely place to start a transportation revolution, but [electric vehicles](https://time.com/6084144/green-auto-industry-workers/) (EVs) are suddenly the new normal here. I would claim that if Norway can do it, any country can. The shift won’t happen overnight, but the speed of the transition here has surprised everyone. Almost sixty-five percent of new passenger cars sold in Norway in 2021 were electric; in addition, 22% were plug-in hybrids. Put differently, only 14% of new cars were sold without a plug. Now that there are many models to choose from and the range has improved, EVs are purchased all over the country. It took us only 10 years to move from 1% to 65%, and next year I believe we will pass 80%. The U.S. and other governments should use 2022 to enact policies that incentivize a similar shift. So, how did Norway become the world’s top-selling electric-vehicle market per capita? Not because of suitable conditions, and definitely not because Norwegians are more environmentally friendly or concerned about climate change. We can instead credit strong demand-side policies kept in place for a long time. After all, it takes time to electrify all the cars on the road. Most cars are purchased secondhand, and people in the secondhand market are dependent on the choices made by new-car buyers. The government therefore taxes the sales of new polluting cars heavily but does not tax EVs at all, making EVs, which are more expensive because of their production costs, a competitive and appealing option. The Norwegian parliament has also decided that all sales of new cars and vans shall be zero emission by 2025\. The faster we get to 100% EV new sales, the faster we get there with all cars on the road. **_Read More:_**[_Electric Cars Can Sound Like Anything. That’s a Huge Opportunity to Craft the Soundscape of the Future_](https://time.com/5951773/electric-car-sound-future/) Half a million people in Norway now drive EVs. I met one of them recently. His name is Kåre, and he had just turned 100 years old. He bought his first EV when he was 99 and uses it to take his 103-year-old sister on Sunday trips. If Kåre can do it, everyone can do it. It’s not as if the rest of the world isn’t interested. Norway’s progress has, of course, been helped by important emission restrictions directed at car manufacturers internationally, and we have seen the start of a global rollout of charging infrastructure. Did you see the [final Super Bowl ad from GM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdsPvbSpB2Y)? Will Ferrell told us he hated Norway because of the high uptake of EVs and that GM and the U.S. were going to catch up. And the U.S. has started! President Biden’s infrastructure bill includes $7.5 billion for a nationwide charging network. But the U.S. can go further in 2022, as can other countries, and implement policies directed at the demand side. This can be done in different ways; the key is to start taxing new sales of at least the most polluting car models and use this money to subsidize EVs. This is a fair way to implement climate policies as it is aimed at people buying a new car, rather than an indiscriminate tax at the gas pump. Consumers are given an option when buying a new car; they could, for instance, choose a model with lower emissions like a plug-in hybrid, which is not taxed, or even an EV that is subsidized. (To be clear, tax policies on purchase alone won’t get where we need to be fast enough – in Norway, there are also several incentives in place such as lower road tolls, partial access to bus lanes and cheaper public parking for those who drive EVs – but it is the most important and effective step that countries around the world can take.) **_Read More:_**[_U.S. School Buses May Never Be The Same Thanks to Biden’s Infrastructure Plan_](https://time.com/6117544/electric-school-buses/) Yes, the transition to EVs might be more politically difficult in some countries than others, but several, like Sweden and New Zealand, have already started, with good results after implementing EV tax policies. New markets are also helped with better technology and massive investments in electric mobility. In fact, some countries are moving even faster than Norway. While Norway took 2.5 years to move from 2% to 10% EV market share, UK took 1.5 years and Germany only one. 2022 is also the year that all governments should join the first 38 countries that signed the COP26 declaration on accelerating the transition to 100% zero-emission cars and vans. It states that they will work toward all sales of new cars and vans being zero emission globally by 2040, and by no later than 2035 in leading markets. Frankly, I don’t think any manufacturer will produce cars with internal combustion engines after 2035\. Still, I cannot stress enough that the transition to EVs must be fast and strong policies are urgently needed. The United Nations’ last climate report was called “code red for humanity.” We are in a hurry when it comes to cutting emissions. So, when there are alternatives that are more than good enough, why not speed things up? _This essay is part of a series on concrete goals the world should aim for in 2022 in order to put us on track to avert climate change-related disaster._ [_Read the rest here_](https://time.com/6133373/climate-targets-for-2022/)_._ ## Transcript [Namrata Iyer]: I think some of the biggest challenges my generation faces is convincing the previous generations about why it's important to talk about what we believe in. [Greta Thunberg]: We can't choose between us young people saying to adults you must behave but we can't wait for us to become the ones in charge because we don't have time for that. [Timothée Chalamet]: Your youth does not have to work against you by way of experience, your youth can be a virtue by way of what you ethically and earnestly expect of the world. [Billie Eilish]: People can be so selfish about the environment and their experience versus the globe and literally our lifespan. [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]: The America we grew up in is like nothing like the America our parents or grandparents grew up in. [Nyke Slawik]: When you have young people who are confronted with not having a future at all of course this is going to radicalize a whole generation. This is a question of survival basically. [John Kerry]: I don't doubt that we will get to a net zero carbon economy. Will we get there fast enough to heed the science and avoid the worst consequences? That's the battle. That's what we're trying to do with Glasgow. [Thunberg]: What do we want? [Audience]: Climate justice. [Thunberg]: When do we want it? [Audience]: Now. [Thunberg]: What do we want? [Audience]: Climate justice. [Thunberg]: When do we want it? [Audience]: Now. [Thunberg]: Thank you. [Justin Worland]: This generation has reframed the way we talk and think about climate to make it an issue of intergenerational justice. The question is will this anger turn into action? Will leaders who have been listening actually take the message to heart and do something about it? [Kerry]: Our diplomacy is guided by what the scientists are telling us we must achieve. Three years ago they had a report in 2018 the IPCC gave us 12 years within which to make the critical decisions to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis. [Hoesung Lee]: Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees is not impossible but will require unprecedented transitions in all aspects of society. [Worland]: It was alarming in its the seriousness with which it portrayed the consequences of climate change. We're talking about hundreds of millions of people migrating. We're talking about the possibility of countries disappearing in their entirety. We're talking about a world that is totally transformed. Already 85 percent of the world's population has been affected by human-caused climate change. [Jim Skea]: The message is over to governments at this stage. We've told you what you—the scientific facts, the evidence, the costs. It is up to the governments now to decide what to do with it. [Ciara Nugent]: We've had loads and loads of reports about climate change over the last couple of decades and the massive threat to our planet but despite all of the science there are still people who are skeptical about how much of a big deal it really is. And I think for those people it's much harder to dismiss young people, normal school kids because they're part of their communities, they're part of their families often. [Nyke Slawik]: What we need is politicians who implement the policies in their home countries and that's—that's what has not been happening in the last years. And so now young people are saying why go to school? Why go to university? Why start planning a family? Why buy a house when I don't even know that in 50 years time or 70 years time I will still have a future, because right now that's at stake. [Ocasio-Cortez]: If we do nothing this is what's going to happen: sea levels are going rise, crops are going to die out, there will be mass starvation. There's going to be all of these things that are going to happen and kids see that, they internalize it. [Charlotte Alter]: Researchers have found that young voters form their lifelong political attitudes in response to the events of their early adulthood, mostly late teens into the late 20s. And for millennials and gen z that period of time has been defined by climate catastrophe. [Christian Hidalgo]: I'm from Bakersfield, California, central valley. Earlier today I've been getting snapchats from all of my friends talking about how orange the sky is because of the wildfire surrounding us. The closest wildfire is probably not even 60 miles away but we have horrible air quality like we're—I'm in the middle of the valley and it just it really strongly affects us and that's what—that's what's drawn me to climate activism. [Isabella Guariniello]: This is my first strike ever. I watched a bunch of like sad penguin videos on YouTube and I started to get really sad when I learned about the effects of animals and like how much earth that we're actually losing. It's hard not to get discouraged when you're constantly learning about what people before you did wrong. [Sassy Fernandez]: Like I remember being in elementary school and watching Al Gore's documentary about climate change and the effects that we could be seeing within the next 10, 15 years and so far he's been pretty right about everything that he said in his documentary. I totally forgot what it was called but shout outs to my science teacher. [Thunberg]: We are being betrayed by those in power and they are failing us but we will not back down. And if you feel threatened by that then I have some very bad news for you. We will not be silenced because we are the change and change is coming whether you like it or not. We need to work together intergenerational of course that is the only way and we need to—everyone needs to participate and help out in the way we can. So I'm doing what I can. I'm trying to use my voice to spread awareness and to—to put pressure on those in power. [Alter]: When TIME put Greta on the cover in 2019 she had just gone from being a school girl protesting alone outside of Swedish parliament to being the leader of a global climate movement. That year her activism inspired four million people to join the global climate strike in 2019 which was at that point the largest climate movement in world history. [Worland]: Across the world with very few exceptions there are examples of people who have been inspired by her and have led—who've taken up the mantle the Fridays for Future movement in countries across the world. [Thunberg]: I'm not a leader or the face of the climate movement, I'm just one of many faces. [Vanessa Nakate]: There are far too little evidence of the 100 billion dollars per year that was promised to help climate vulnerable countries to meet these challenges. In fact, those funds were promised to arrive by 2020 and we are still waiting. [Nugent]: Vanessa Nakate, a Ugandan climate activist, is one of many people who have been working to remind us that climate action is going to be expensive and many countries who are most vulnerable to climate change can't afford to pay for it alone. [Nakate]: Historically Africa is responsible for only three percent of global emissions and yet some Africans are already suffering some of the worst and brutal impacts of climate change, so to me climate justice doesn't just have to be about reducing greenhouse gas emissions it goes beyond the primary disasters that we see. It is what happens in the aftermath of those disasters, what happens to families, what happens to individuals, what happens to communities. [Worland]: You think about the fact that the U.S. has emitted a quarter of emissions historically. Africa has emitted three percent of emissions historically and the U.S. is able to isolate itself, to pay for adaptation, to pay for the costs in a way that developing countries in sub-saharan Africa and across the globe just can't. And so climate change is a justice issue on many different levels. [Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala]: We we have to bear in mind that whether you're rich or poor, a rich country or poor country, there are some things you just cannot do on your own. You can't deliver on this pandemic on your own, you cannot deliver on climate change on your own. [Nakate]: So what we really want is a future that is healthy, that is sustainable, that is clean, that is livable and equitable for all of us. [Nugent]: Some of the activists that I speak to are realizing they can't wait for the older generation to take action so they're trying to get elected to governments themselves. In Germany, the Green Party has really been in the ascendancy. In September they've almost doubled their number of seats in parliament and one of the 118 lawmakers they now have is Nyke Slawik. She's a 27 year old German politician who was elected in September to the Bundestag and she has been involved in climate activism for almost 12 years and now she has political power to make a difference. [Slawik]: The time of just implementing small changes has passed and this is a reality we as younger politicians are bringing with us to the parliament now but of course there's lots of older colleagues who have not quite grasped this yet, and I think this is why we might be more determined to not go for the small compromises, to be a bit more rebellious about these things. The last German government has decided to exit coal in 2038 which is still too late way too late but now we even have the chance to accelerate energy transition from coal to renewables way quicker and that's a major achievement of the youth climate movement. [Alter]: In the United States young voters across the political spectrum understand that climate change is a major issue that needs to be addressed, they just disagree on how best to do it. So even younger Republicans, Republicans under 40, they understand that climate change is happening, they understand that something has to be done about it, they just don't agree with their more progressive peers about the scale and scope of what that intervention needs to be. So this is a big shift from a couple generations ago when you had one side insisting that climate change was a problem and the other side basically denying that it was happening at all. [Worland]: When TIME spoke to Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, he spoke about how the youth movement had made him want to do better. When I talked to the U.N. Secretary General he talked about how he was trying to bring youth into the climate discussion because it had enthused him and he thought it would help change the conversation. Talking to members of Congress about how inspirational Greta was really made clear to me that she was changing the conversation. [Nugent]: In my reporting activists are telling me that COP 26 is a crucial moment to find out if politicians are really listening to them and really taking action or if they're just saying they're listening and delaying action. [Nakate]: Leaders keep praising young people for standing up and protesting but saving the world needs action, it needs decisions from the leaders, decisions that prioritize the lives of the people and the planet, and that is not something that we are doing. The words of the leaders are not matching up with their actions. [Thunberg]: Words. Words that sound great but so far has led to no action. Our hopes and dreams drown in their empty words and promises. Of course we need constructive dialogue but they've now had 30 years of blah blah blah and where has that led us? [Jane Goodall]: I'm about to leave the world and leave it behind me with all the mess whereas young people have to grow up into it. That's why they need every bit of help they can. And if, you know, if they succumb to the doom and gloom ,which many have, then they lose hope. If you lose hope that's the end, because if you don't hope that there's a way out, if you don't hope that your actions can make a difference then you sink into apathy and do nothing. So hope is absolutely crucial if we're to get through this. [Singing]: We're going to strike because our waters are rising. We're going to strike because our people are dying. We're going to strike for life and everything we love. We're going to strike for you, will you strike for us? We're going to strike for you, will you strike for us? We're going to strike because our waters are rising. We're going to strike because our people are dying. We're going to strike for life and everything we love. We're going to strike for you, will you strike for us? We're going to strike for you, will you strike for us? Beautiful. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6133180/norway-electric-vehicles/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6133180/norway-electric-vehicles/"},"headline":"What Norway Can Teach the World About Switching to Electric Vehicles","datePublished":"2022-01-07T12:00:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:51:47.259Z","description":"Christina Bu, secretary general of the Norwegian EV Association, writes that strong demand-side policies can incentivize new-car buys to purchase electric vehicles.","url":"https://time.com/6133180/norway-electric-vehicles/","keywords":["climate change","freelance","nationpod","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta016b6624c230b12/698a213c22fb8553a3e2cff3/Climate-Goals-03GREEN.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Christina Bu","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/christina-bu/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta016b6624c230b12/698a213c22fb8553a3e2cff3/Climate-Goals-03GREEN.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Electric Cars In Oslo As Global Gasoline Consumption Has All But Peaked","caption":"Electric Cars In Oslo As Global Gasoline Consumption Has All But Peaked","creditText":"Fredrik Bjerknes—Bloomberg/Get—© 2016 Bloomberg Finance LP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6133180/norway-electric-vehicles/","name":"What Norway Can Teach the World About Switching to Electric Vehicles"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Generation Now: The Fight for Climate Justice","description":"Today’s young people are coming of age just as the stable climate that has allowed previous generations to thrive on our planet begins to visibly break down—and just before our last chance to stop it falls out of reach.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/CIHrS8Mv/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2021-11-05T19:13:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/CIHrS8Mv.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6133180/norway-electric-vehicles/","duration":"PT14M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6133180/norway-electric-vehicles/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```