An electric car charging in Sjusjøen, Norway. Credit: Eva Kongshavn/GettyImages.

The number of electric cars has overtaken petrol models in Norway, the country’s road federation said on Wednesday, while the number of diesel cars is also falling.

Of the 2.8 million registered passenger cars in the country, 754,303 are electric vehicles (EVs) while 753,905 run purely on petrol, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said, adding that the figures represent a “historic shift”.

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“Norway is rapidly moving towards becoming the first country in the world with a passenger car stock dominated by electric cars,” said Øyvind Solberg Thorsen, director of OFV.

The speed at which the passenger fleet is being replaced could indicate that electric cars may also outnumber diesel cars in 2026, he added.

There are around a million registered diesel passenger cars in the Scandinavian country and more than 200,000 plug-in hybrids. The figures released this week are as of September 16 this year.

Two decades ago, in September 2004, there were more than 1.6 million petrol cars in Norway, along with an estimated 230,000 diesel models and around 1,000 EVs.

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The country has been accelerating its clean energy transition, boosted by an abundance of hydropower, with renewables making up more than 95% of power generation in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency.

Norway also remains western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, although its output fell by 45% between 2000 and 2022.

Earlier this year, environmental and youth groups won a court case against the Norwegian Government, with permits for three oil and gas fields in the North Sea declared invalid for environmental reasons. The government is appealing the verdict.