Ownership of battery electric vehicles is uneven in Norwegian households

The transition to a zero-emission passenger vehicle fleet has become imperative because of the growing concerns about climate change. Here, we investigate the trends and socioeconomic determinants influencing emitting and battery electric vehicle ownership using longitudinal data of Norwegian households with any vehicle ownership record from 2005 to 2022, accounting for over 2.4 million unique households. Intriguingly, more than half of the households owning battery electric vehicles had three or more of these vehicles in 2022, indicating an unbalanced ownership distribution concentrating on the wealthiest. Moreover, almost one in ten households once owned battery electric vehicles discontinued ownership by 2022. Our population-level panel data analysis indicates that lower income, having children, and working away from the residence municipality are positively linked to owning emitting vehicles, while demonstrating the opposite effect for battery electric vehicle ownership. Household size and educational attainment also appear to drive vehicle ownership positively. The type of vehicles owned by Norwegians depends on household size, income and work commute, and battery electric vehicle ownership is concentrated in the wealthier part of the population, according to an analysis of socio-economic data of 2.4 million households from 2005 to 2022.