On September 11, during an event in Shanghai, Jonas Gahr St?re, the Norwegian Prime Minister who was on an official visit to China, clearly stated that Norway is not an EU member state, so it will not unilaterally impose sanctions on Chinese electric vehicles. St?re pointed out that Norway does not have a common trade policy with the EU, so it will not participate in similar unilateral actions.

At the same time, St?re also mentioned that he told the Chinese side that the issues raised by the EU regarding the subsidies and production methods of Chinese electric vehicles should be answered. He emphasized that China should take this opportunity to answer these questions to respond to the EUs concerns.

In Norway, the electric vehicle market occupies a large share. According to statistics from the Norwegian Road Federation cited by Xinhua News Agency in January this year, in 2023, electric vehicles accounted for 82.4% of new car sales in Norway, an increase of 3.1 percentage points compared with 2022, continuing to dominate the new car market in Norway. The data shows that nearly 127,000 new cars were sold in Norway last year, of which 104,600 were electric vehicles.

The performance of Chinese brands in the Norwegian market is also quite remarkable. According to Chen Wenlin, the economic and commercial counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Norway, currently nearly 10 ChineseNew energyautomobile enterprises have entered the Norwegian market. The brands with the best sales performance include Chinese - owned brands with European “bloodlines” such as Volvo, Polestar, and MG. In addition, the market shares of brands such as Hongqi and NIO are also gradually increasing.

Chen Wenlin believes that different from some EU countries such as Germany and France, Norway does not have local car companies, and its policies on green development and climate change response are in line with those of China, which creates an equal competitive opportunity for Chinese - brand new energy vehicles in the Norwegian market. Therefore, Norway will not take sanctions measures against Chinese electric vehicles like some EU countries.