Vidar Helgesen

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VIDAR HELGESEN, minister of Climate and Environment of Norway, said Thursday that he is very excited about what he saw in BYD and believes there is strong potential that BYD vehicles will enter Norway.

“This year we see that about one-third of the new cars sold are either fully electric or hybrid. The challenge going forward is to ensure electrification not only of light-duty vehicles but also of vans, buses, lorries and trucks,” said Helgesen.

In terms of the electrification of heavy-duty vehicles, Helgesen is very excited about what he saw in BYD. “Just like Shenzhen, we need to bring our emissions from transport down. The problem of light-duty vehicles will be solved because its electrification is growing very quickly.”

“But the heavier-duty vehicles are very important. There will be testing of a couple of the BYD light vans in Oslo later this year. Two bus lines in Oslo will also test BYD buses. We already see the beginning of interesting cooperation there,” said Helgesen, adding that there is no car industry in Norway.

Helgesen believes that there is strong potential that BYD vehicles will enter Norway, “because the electric vehicles are now being very popular.”

“We have a national target that by 2025, no fossil [fueled] cars will be sold as new cars, which means we will need a lot of electric cars,” he said. “The more choices people have, the better. BYD has operations in Europe. They haven’t entered the Norwegian market with light-duty vehicles, but they are starting with small vans and electric buses.”

Apart from electric vehicles, Norway and China have also been cooperating in other fields, such as ferries and an emissions trading system.

“There are two ferries operating in Shenzhen. The two ferries, built in Norway, are made of carbon fiber, light-weight, high-speed and greener than old ones,” said Espen Rikter-Svendsen, consul general of Norway in Guangzhou.

“In the environmental cooperation between Norway and China over the last few years, we have technical cooperation on the establishment of an emissions trading system in China in that regard. And the Shenzhen experiences are very interesting,” said Helgesen.

The fleet of plug-in electric vehicles in Norway is the largest per capita in the world, and Oslo is recognized as the EV capital of the world. As of July 2016, the market concentration was 21.5 registered plug-in cars per 1,000 people.