The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that in 2017, Norway set a goal of having all new car sales be zero-emission by 2025. The Globe's Gary Mason writes this was not a mandate that came with penalties; there were no fines to be doled out to manufacturers that did not meet certain quotas. It was done with both carrots and sticks. The overarching philosophy adopted by successive governments over the past few decades has been this: It should always be more economical to choose an electric vehicle over a gas-powered one. To that end, they effectively adopted a "polluter pays" principle. Norwegian governments raised taxes on gasoline, making it less costly to drive an EV. The taxes on polluting cars partially paid for the inducements offered to EV drivers. The purchase tax on cars with emissions, for instance, is calculated by weight and carbon-dioxide and nitrous-oxide emissions, making cars with high discharges extremely expensive. EVs have long been exempt from the national value-added tax, as well from an onerous purchase tax on new cars. EV owners also got breaks on road tolls and ferries, and Norway has a national charging strategy. Today, 88.9 per cent of all new cars sold there are fully electric.