Have you looked at the taxes versus incentives for EVs vs ICEs in Norway? If you need a new car and one is triple the cost (because the other is exempt from fees) what are you going to buy?
But yeah, it's for the environment, surely. Reverse the policy and see what happens.
I agree it's a strong incentive, but I'm not sure it's the only one. One example was during the cold wave last winter. ICE owners struggled quite a bit more than EV owners. You also have the problem that ICE vehicles are quite slow and laggy, unless you spend a lot of money on performance ICE vehicles but then they usually tend to be loud and uncomfortable.
In the rest of the EEA, EVs sales are plummeting.
https://www.acea.auto/pc-registrations/new-car-registrations...