Norway's new vans were 74.6% electric in September after a tax increase

Electric vans took 74.6% of Norway's new van registrations in September 2026, a share the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) calls a record. The market was smaller: 2,036 new vans, 29.5% fewer than in September 2025. New diesel vans fell 70% year over year, from 1,548 to 468, while new electric vans rose 22%, from 1,247 to 1,518.

The September 1 tax change is the obvious suspect, and OFV reads it that way. From September 1, 2026, Norway's one-time registration tax (engangsavgiften) rose for vans with combustion engines, by up to NOK 15,000 (about $1,550 at Norges Bank's October 2, 2026 rate) for some models, per OFV. The Duck Curve's August brief reported the diesel share of new vans rising to 56.1% in the second half of August, a jump OFV director Geir Inge Stokke said may indicate some registrations were brought forward, though the main trend was still electric vans growing. OFV adds that August's new diesel van count was roughly level with August 2025, so pull-forward alone cannot explain September's fall; Stokke said the tax change appears to have had a clear effect on van registration figures.

Year to date, 17,877 new vans have been registered, 8.8% fewer than in the same period of 2025, and 55.5% of them are electric, against 44.6% a year earlier, per OFV. Volkswagen's ID.Buzz Cargo was the month's most-registered van, at 601.

The fleet is another matter. Of the 526,284 vans on Norwegian roads at September 30, 2026, 11.2% are electric, up from 8.7% a year earlier, and diesel still accounts for 85%, per OFV. The used market is where the diesel fleet lives: 8,929 vans changed owners in September, more than four times the number registered new, and nearly nine in ten were diesel, one in ten electric. Stokke said fleet turnover has to happen even faster if emissions from goods transport are to fall.

Passenger cars had no such drama: electric cars were 98.8% of Norway's 18,733 new passenger car registrations in September, which OFV's October 1, 2026 report also calls a record, and 97.9% of the year to date.