EV Fleet Charging Infrastructure Best Practice: What We Can Learn from Norway?

Norway is the EV capital of the world, and 89% of cars sold in Norway in January 2024 were electric. Despite famously making vast sums of money from North Sea Oil drilling in the second half of the 20th century, Norway has become a leader in sustainable travel.

So what’s the secret to Norway’s success? In this guide, we’re going to explore what fleet operators in other countries can learn from the Norwegians, from investing in EV charging infrastructure to incentivising commercial EV adoption, there’s plenty to cover.

Despite being one of the world’s coldest countries, and therefore not very suitable for battery operated electric vehicles (EVs), Norway has defied the odds to become the first country to see the sale of EVs overtake those powered by petrol, diesel and hybrid engines. No other country has more EVs per capita. 

The Norwegian government was also the first to announce a ban on the sale of new ICE vehicles by 2025. 

As a result, Norway’s EV market is booming. In 2024, sales data reveals another record year – with 89% of all new cars sold being fully electric. In January of 2025 EVs took a massive 96% share of all vehicle sales across both private and business sectors.

Overview

So, are Norwegian fleet operators more passionate about going green than the rest of the world – or do they just like the incentives? Well, as you’d expect, Norway’s wide-ranging electric vehicle adoption is not down to one specific reason, but a mixture of domestic and economic policy and incentives. We’ll go into these in more depth further down, but they include:

• Changing the car tax system
• Heavily investing in EV charging infrastructure
• Subsidising EV travel on ferries and toll roads 
• Education and accessibility

It’s clear the Norwegian government had a clear strategy to achieve their goals of 100% zero-emission car sales by 2025, and to help bring businesses and fleet operators with them.

Incentivising behaviour change

One of the key tools helping Norway establish EVs as the new normal is government incentives. In part, Norway’s high rate of electric vehicle adoption has been driven by the idea that “the polluter pays” when it comes to taxation.

In 1990 Norway removed purchase and import tax for zero emission vehicles, and in 2001, introduced a VAT exemption (yet to be lifted) – setting the market up perfectly for an EV revolution.

The biggest impact on such rapid buyer behaviour change however is likely to have been Norway’s relatively high taxation of petrol and diesel vehicles – at 25%. Making zero emission vehicles the natural and more affordable choice than their counterparts, even if the import price is much higher. This behaviour change in the private market has impacted the adoption of commercial and fleet EVs. As drivers become used to driving EVs, the transition in a business setting is much easier.

A host of other local and national government incentives for zero emission vehicle drivers have also no doubt helped with uptake, such as reduced road and ferry tolls, discounted public parking, widely available free public charging, use of the bus lanes, no registration tax on used car sales, no annual ownership tax, and no fuel tax. 

Investment in EV Charging infrastructure

Norway’s EV charging policy and excellent charge point network have also aided EV uptake – easing range anxiety and enabling drivers to visit most points of interest in the country without concern. Given the mountainous and often isolated terrain, this is particularly important. To support a network of more than 750,000 EVs there are now almost 27,000 charging stations across Norway. And you won’t need to travel more than 30 miles to find your nearest rapid charge point.

A fast charging station has been installed on every main road in the country. More than 5,600 cars can fast charge at the same time – removing any concerns around queuing. 

As another aspect of EV charging best practices in Norway, the majority of charge point operators provide 24/7 year-round support for customers and many now allow drivers to use the same RFID cards to roam between charge points, use payment terminals, QR-codes and offer drop-in solutions such as start/stop charging via SMS. 

The Norwegian Electric Car Association also provides members with a black charging chip, in action since 2014, making it possible to start, stop and pay for charging with many operators across the country – and is cheaper than using SMS. 

“Norway is a country with a widespread population, high mountains and a climate with snow and ice in the winters […] but it really does work, we have been able to build the (EV charging) infrastructure” – Nicholai Jorgensen, Mer Norway AS

All of these are as useful to fleet operators as they are to the general public, allowing businesses to reliably recharge their vehicles away from the depot, without delays to their operations.