A couple of comments on the article point out that if gas stations start closing due to reduced demand, it will accelerate the effect by making it more cumbersome to own a gas car. Recently, some of the industrial area near my apartment in NYC was rezoned for housing, and nearly all of the local gas stations were torn down (not because of low demand but because a 15 story building would be more profitable). The result is that even though I own a gas car, I now know of more–and more convenient–places in the area where I could charge an electric car than I do gas stations. Interesting shift!

It may be worth considering that while Norway's 'motor fuel sales' went down supposedly their 'oil consumption' use per EIA has remained flat (and supposedly gone up recently) - see this chart by Nate Hagens in https://twitter.com/NJHagens/status/1669072120939159553 which is figure 2 in https://fictitiouscapital.substack.com/p/a-sticky-situation-... which says "But look at the interesting case study of Norway, where oil consumption has remained flat (it has one of the highest per capita oil consumption levels globally — 3x China & 10x India) despite EVs being 90%+ of new car sales and 98% electricity coming from hydropower."

The headline doesn't follow from the actual data (par for the course with electrek I guess).

Here is a graph from the source used in TFA. Now look at the sum of gasoline, diesel and biofuels, and tell me that's "cratering".

https://robbieandrew.github.io/EV/img/NORenergy_road.png

Well, in the larger metropolitan regions (Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim), where probably 2/3 of Norwegians live, you see a majority of electrics or at least hybrids.

When you get further North, that diminishes. From Lofoten to Tromsø, you see more and more petrol or diesel. And heavier vehicles.

The automotive culture there starkly reminded me of Iceland.

Fishy click bait title. The reason electric is so popular is that ICE vehicles get taxed 100% and electrics are not. Remove the incentives and I suspect the market would be different.

In 2025 bans of diesel will begin for some large populations Athens, Madrid, Mexico City, Paris, etc. Electric buses for Cape Town, Milan, Quito, etc. [0]

If these occur with no difficulties, it will be easier for governments to uphold their 2030 and 2035 agreements.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-out_of_fossil_fuel_vehic...

Motor fuel sales cannot be the sole main indicator for a "death spiral that can end oil".

Oil/Petroleum products are massively employed in the manufacture of daily life items (pretty much maybe everything, not just plastics) and cutting the usage of petroleum products in that area will be the real death spiral that can end oil.

Norway leads the way in EV adoption while getting (and staying) rich selling oil to the rest of the world.

I wonder if electric cars were to approach the maximum range that most people would ever want to drive in a day, about double the stated range of the current longer-ranged cars, if that might trigger a rather profound and sudden tipping point.

Who cares how quickly they charge if you’re stopping to sleep for the night anyway?

Have they found a replacement for plastic yet?

30-40+/-% of refined oil is gasoline. So if you need to refine oil for jet fuel, heating oil, plastics, pavement and/or the 100s of other products we use everyday, then you are stuck with gasoline. Need to solve the 100s of other equally significant challenges as well.

What happens when the electricity goes out? And the food in the fridge goes bad and nobody can get to the store because the electric car isn't charged? Have we really thought this through? Redundant energy sources makes sense.

Where I live (in the USA), they are still building new gas stations. Are they expecting the government to bail them out? What kind of business person sees the impending end of fossil-fuel cars and builds a gas station?

Oil is still being used for plastic products. It will still be mined and drilled or fracked until all uses of oil diminish.

Norway is like a drug dealer that never gets high on its own supply.

> electricity comes from the wall socket

Would that it were so!

Can anyone recommend a good article comparing environmental lifecycle costs of EV vs combustion engine that include lithium and cobalt mining?

Someone remind me again on the stats of battery toxicity and pollution vs fossil fuels?

Also, is all of Norway energy produced by wind or solar? Or does this just move the tail pipe and introduce more toxic battery waste?

Norway is more of a city than a country, and a rather wealthy one that is difficult to draw conclusions from when it comes to consumer spending patterns. I'd brush this off as not that interesting.

However, if we're looking for oil death spirals in Norway, I recommend: https://crudeoilpeak.info/global-peak/norway-peak-oil