If you’re looking for a window on the future of cars, take a gander at Norway.

In March, almost 56 percent of the new cars sold in the Scandinavian country were electric or plug-in hybrids. That’s the highest rate in the world. (In 2017, the comparable figure in the United States was 1 percent.)

As a result, say some analysts, gasoline, diesel, and oil lubricant sales in Norway are all declining for the first time in seven years.

Yes, there’s a bit of irony in that fossil fuel money is helping to pay for a national shift in thinking. Norway derives 15 percent of its economic output from oil. Its path to a moral high ground is government subsidized by as much as $8,200 per car per year (including about $5,000 worth of free parking). And Norway gets 99 percent of its electricity from hydropower, so citizens don’t have the ethical trade-offs many countries face. For example, is your Nissan Leaf juicing up with electricity from a coal-fired power plant?

But to quote the Oracle in “The Matrix,” “what’s really going to bake your noodle” is that “56 percent of new car sales” figure may be suppressed. Studies show that traditional auto dealers (even in Norway), for a variety of reasons, tend to push customers away from electric vehicles.

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