Norway boasts the highest per capita ownership of electric cars in the world, for a number of interrelated reasons, it seems. The tax on purchases of new cars, all of which are imported, can be more than 100 percent, depending on weight and fuel efficiency, but it's almost zero for electric cars. The annual automobile tax is about a seventh of the tax burden for a gas-powered vehicle. This savings is apparently enough to offset the higher sticker price of electric cars. According to a friend of ours who is Norwegian, the American Tesla sells for 580,000 kroner, or ¥9.6 million, and there is a six-month waiting list. We asked our friend if there were enough high-speed charging stations in Norway, and he said there are about 4,000, which is not considered enough but he says most people are "satisfied" with charging their EVs at home, where it takes about 8 hours to top them off.

In addition to offering tax breaks, the government promotes EVs by subsidizing the installation of charging stations. EVs do not have to pay road tolls, and they can use lanes that are normally limited to buses and taxis. More significantly, despite the fact that Norway's wealth is derived from oil, its gas prices are among the highest in the world, twice as much as they are in Japan. So while EVs are very expensive to buy , in the long run they are much more economical thanks to the government.

One of the reasons auto-related taxes are so high in Norway is that the country has no automotive industry to protect. Electric cars are manufactured in Japan and are relatively cheap, but much less popular. At last week's Tokyo Motor Show, Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan, which makes the electric Leaf, admitted that EVs weren't selling as well as expected and that the company's sales goal of 1.5 million units by 2016 would not be reached.