Tesla: Norway Is Leading The Charge

Driving through Norway is always an impressive experience. The scenery is spectacular, with deep blue fjords surrounded by snow-capped mountains that are home to countless cascading waterfalls. Something else that will probably take your breath away is the sheer number of Teslas and other electric vehicles on the country's roads. Over a third of new cars sold in Norway are fully electric or plug-in hybrid, more than 10 times the proportion of the United States.

The shift away from petrol and diesel vehicles in Norway is happening at lightning speed. The transition is being driven by generous government incentives such as free use of car ferries to cross all those fjords, use of bus lanes and free charging. Most importantly, electric cars are exempt from car-purchase tax and the 25 percent sales tax on nearly all Norwegian goods. That has all bode well for Tesla who sold 4,000 cars in Norway in 2015. That made it the company's second biggest market after the USA.

The following infographic shows how Norway is leading Tesla's charge. In terms of the sheer number of superchargers, the U.S. is out in front with 380, according to the website supercharge.info. However, when it comes to chargers per million inhabitants, the story is different. Norway has 6.3 Tesla superchargers per million of its people while the U.S. has 1.2.