Norway has become the first country in the world in which the sale of electric cars has shot past those of petrol, diesel and hybrid engine models, data released for the year 2020 showed on Tuesday.

German auto giant Volkswagen, which had figured in the dieselgate scandal, has replaced Elon Musk-led Tesla as the top battery-vehicle producer, the data show.

Battery electric vehicles (BEV) made up 54.3 per cent of all new cars sold in the Norway in 2020, a world record, up from 42.4 per cent in 2019 and from a mere 1 per cent of the overall market a decade ago, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said. With a target to become the first country to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2025, oil-producing Norway does not levy any tax on fully electric vehicles.

While the sale of BEVs had broken the 50%-mark in individual months, 2020 was the first time that fully electric cars outsold the combined volume of models containing internal combustion engines for a year as a whole.

BEV sales accelerated in the final months of 2020, hitting its highest level for any single month in December, with a 66.7 per cent share of the car market.

“We’re definitely on track to reach the 2025 target,” OFV Chief Executive Oeyvind Thorsen said at a news conference in Oslo..