Tag Archives: ICE cars

News

Norway Just Quietly Killed the Gas Car—And Did It with a Spreadsheet

If the internal-combustion engine had a natural predator, it wouldn’t be lithium or silicon—it would be Norway’s tax code.

In 2025, Norway didn’t just continue its electric-car experiment; it all but finished the job. Nearly 96 percent of all new cars registered were fully electric, up from an already eyebrow-raising 88.9 percent the year before. By December, that number flirted with 98 percent, a figure that would sound like science fiction anywhere else in Europe. And this wasn’t a shrinking market limping toward electrification—total new-car registrations jumped 40 percent, reaching 179,549 vehicles.

This wasn’t an accident. It was a deadline.

Buy Now, or Pay Later

The surge came as buyers raced ahead of a tax reckoning. In October, the Norwegian government announced that new tax increases would arrive in January 2026, and the market reacted instantly. Shoppers didn’t wait around—they bought electric, and they bought now.

Under current rules, electric cars priced below 300,000 Norwegian kroner (about €25,300) will remain exempt from value-added tax even after 2026. That carve-out is the golden ticket. Below that price line, EVs aren’t just competitive—they’re the obvious choice. Above it, the math gets harsher, but it’s still far kinder than what internal-combustion vehicles face.

Gas and diesel cars, meanwhile, are buried under duties so heavy they might as well come with a warning label. In Norway, buying an ICE vehicle isn’t just old-fashioned—it’s financially self-sabotaging.

Automakers Follow the Money

Manufacturers saw the wave coming and scrambled to surf it. Supply increased as automakers diverted inventory to Norway to capitalize on demand. As Ford Norway director Per Gunnar Berg put it bluntly, vehicles not originally intended for the country were rerouted “as soon as possible” to meet appetite.

And who benefited most? No surprises here.

For the fifth straight year, Tesla topped the sales charts, grabbing 19.1 percent of the market. Volkswagen followed with 13.3 percent, and Volvo landed at 7.8 percent. But the real story may be China’s quiet advance: vehicles built there now command 13.7 percent of the Norwegian market, up from 10.4 percent a year earlier. BYD, in particular, more than doubled its sales, proving that Norway’s EV transition isn’t just reshaping powertrains—it’s reshaping brand hierarchies.

The Carrot Is Nice. The Stick Is Better.

Norway’s transformation stands in sharp contrast to the rest of Europe, where EV adoption continues at a slower, more cautious pace. The difference isn’t infrastructure or consumer enthusiasm alone—it’s policy philosophy.

According to Christina Bu, director of the Norwegian Association for Electric Cars, convenience isn’t the whole story. Incentives matter, yes—but so does pressure. The country didn’t just make electric cars easier to buy; it made gasoline cars harder to justify. High levies, rising ownership costs, and shrinking advantages have steadily squeezed combustion engines out of relevance.

In other words, Norway didn’t politely invite EVs in. It showed gas cars the door.

The Endgame Is Already Here

There’s a delicious irony in all of this: Norway, one of Europe’s most significant oil producers, is also the continent’s most successful EV market. It turns out that when the rules are clear, consistent, and unapologetically tilted toward the future, consumers adapt fast.

Norway didn’t wait for the market to “naturally” transition. It engineered the outcome—and now the gas car is functionally extinct.

The rest of Europe is still debating. Norway already moved on.

Source: Reuters; Photo: EPA-EFE

News

The future of PHEV cars

Since the EU passed a regulation banning the sale of ICE cars from 2035, European manufacturers have been trying to find a solution to resist the invasion of cheap Chinese cars. The price of EVs has started to rise and buyers have increasingly chosen hybrids. However, now PHEVs could be a problem for manufacturers.

A recent EU study showed that plug-in hybrids used electric motors between 70 and 85 percent of the time, but the reality was very different. A closer look at the data showed that drivers used the combustion engine more often than previously thought, lowering the use of electric motors to less than 50 percent.

The study showed that drivers did not charge the batteries as needed, but used combustion engines that emitted more CO2. Therefore, the EU adjusted the calculation of CO2 emissions of PHEVs in normal use, increasing the efficiency factor, the percentage that runs on electricity, and manufacturers extended the electric range to counteract this. However, manufacturers had to install more powerful charging systems (up to 50 kW) and report electricity consumption so that the EU could update its CO2 calculation model.

It should not be forgotten that EVs must account for at least 30 percent of total sales, which is currently almost impossible for most manufacturers. This could give an opportunity for manufacturers to attract a larger number of customers by reducing the prices of hybrid cars, but also bring a new headache because Asian manufacturers, which are leading in electrification, have greater opportunities compared to the competition.

Source: Automotive News Europe, Photo: Land Rover

News

EVs more popular than ICE cars in China

In 2020, the Chinese government set a goal for electric vehicles to account for half of new car sales by 2035, but at this rate, China will reach that goal a decade early. According to the latest data, sales of electric cars in China will reach 12 million units in 2024, surpassing cars with combustion engines for the first time ever.

The latest information says that in 2024, sales of cars with combustion engines could fall to less than 11 million units, which is 10 percent less than in 2023. That’s no surprise, considering China has big plans for EVs. Plug-in hybrids are expected to be a hit this year with 4.39 million units sold, rising to 6.05 million vehicles over the next eight years.

Predictions are that once the transition point is reached, electric vehicles will continue to grow and could exceed 18 million units by 2034. By then, sales of cars with combustion engines could drop to just 2.93 million.

What could worry the manufacturers of cars with combustion engines in China is that these vehicles will have very little space in the domestic market. In 2024, the market share of foreign cars fell to 37 percent compared to 64 percent in 2020. This shows that Chinese buyers are increasingly choosing domestic vehicles in the largest new car market on the planet, resulting in a reduction in a significant source of revenue for many manufacturers.

China, as the world’s EV leader, is slowly killing its competition. EV production is turning into a game of survival, and the winners are likely to be the manufacturers that can deliver quality vehicles at affordable prices. This will also mean the shutdown of some of the all-electric brands that have been present on the market for years.

One of the first victims in the cruel automotive world is the American brand Fisker. In 2023, Fisker had big plans, production of 40,000 electric vehicles, but only 10,000 left the production lines. The Ocean SUV has received mixed reviews, with Consumer Reports claiming that the promise has not been fulfilled, while regulators have addressed issues with brakes and doors that won’t open. Further complicating the situation for Fisker was the fact that the Ocean lost its place on the list of tax-deductible electric vehicles unless leased because it was manufactured outside of North America. Now, they are bankrupt.

Source: Reuters