Responding to requests from three of its largest municipalities, Norway is moving to allow cities to enforce zero-emission zones, the better to encourage the uptake of electric vans and trucks in the commercial light transport sector.
Norway tops the charts in passenger electric vehicle adoption, with 96% of all new cars registered in January being battery-powered. But freight electrification is lagging, with 70% of vans sold in Norway running on carbon-intensive, polluting diesel, reports The Telegraph.
To reduce diesel traffic in their streets, Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim sought federal permission to begin mandating zero-emission zones within their boundaries, which they secured on March 4.
The next steps will be to iron out the technical, legal, and practical aspects of the mandates, Transport and Communications Minister Jon-Ivar Nygård said in a press release. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration will prepare a legislative and regulatory proposal, which will then undergo public consultation.
Local authorities will decide whether they want to introduce the zones or not, the press release states.
Norway’s move to support cities seeking more aggressive climate action aligns with its ongoing car-free liveability program, which includes the removal of hundreds of parking spots, The Telegraph writes. The proposed zoning changes may nonetheless allow cities to grant exceptions for fossil-fueled cars, adds the news outlet.
The number of passenger EVs on the streets of Norway’s biggest cities is now over 40%, reports Bloomberg. But the details of electric transport sales present a more complex picture. On one hand, the total number of EV transport truck sales “actually declined” in 2024 compared to 2023, writes industry publication Electrive, despite Norway’s mandate that all new trucks be electric by 2030.
“That said, in terms of sales share, things are looking up ever so slightly,” with EVs accounting for 12.6% of all new transport trucks sold in Norway in 2024, a gain of 0.3 percentage points, year-on-year, the industry insider writes, citing data from the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association. And heavy-duty EV truck sales are rocketing, with 371 new ones hitting the Norwegian roads in 2024, an increase of 91% compared to 2023.
