Photo taken on March 6, 2019 shows the Arcfox-GT electric vehicle at the 89th Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland. Electric cars and hybrid cars are highlights at this year's Geneva International Motor Show, which will open to the public from March 7 to 17. (Photo:Xinhua)

Sales of new electric cars in Norway hit a record high last year, sector experts said Friday, reaching 42.4 percent of all nearly-registered cars in 2019, mostly thanks to strong demand for Tesla's Model 3.

Norway, a major oil producer that has pioneered in electric mobility, offers a very advantageous tax regime for clean vehicles, making them highly competitive in cost terms against petrol and diesel vehicles. 

New e-car models arriving on the market should help push their share higher still this year, said OFV, a body which monitors Norway's car market. In 2019, 60,316 all-electric new cars were sold in Norway out of a total of 142,381, a rise of 30.8 percent from the previous year when the market share of e-cars was 31.2 percent.

The Norwegian car importer association said it expects e-cars to take a market share for new cars of 55 to 60 percent in 2020. Norway has a 2025 target for all new cars to be zero-emission models.