Petrol Sales In Norway Drop 8% Year Over Year – CleanTechnica

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Electric vehicle sales have been growing strong over the past decade, and especially over the past four years or so. One thing that some people have pointed out, though, is that growing EV sales is one thing, actually reducing use of petrol (gasoline and diesel) and cutting carbon emissions. Even if you have 100% EV sales a year, it takes time for older petrol-powered cars to get off the road and stop polluting.

Norway has been, far and away, the leader in terms of EV market share, with even 90%+ of sales being plugin sales in recent years. The majority of vehicles on its roads, though, are still fossil-powered polluters. It just takes time for cars to be retired from the road.

That’s why some recent news shared by CleanTechnica reader trackdaze really caught my attention. He commented that fresh news from Norway showed that sales of petrol dropped a whopping 8% year over year in May. That’s a big drop in sales when you consider how little the fleet of vehicles on the road is expected to change from one year to the next. Kudos to Norway! Of course, this wasn’t achieved just from the new electric cars sold in the past year, but also from how many EVs have been sold in recent years, leading to more and more petrol-powered cars getting to the ends of their lives over time if not immediately.

Gasoline fuel sales for road transportation were down 3.7% in May 2024 versus May 2023, while dutiable diesel fuel sales for road transportation were down 9.6% in May 2024 versus May 2023.

Year to date, gasoline sales are down 1.4%, dutiable diesel sales are down 7.3%, and overall petrol fuel for road transportation is down 5.9%. What will they be at in a year?