How A-ha helped make Norway the world’s electric vehicle capital

In 1989, Norweigan pop sensation A-ha's singer Morten Harket and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen brought back from Switzerland to Norway something rarely seen back then - an electric car. Once in Oslo, A-ha boys started breaking the rules with the car: parking it illegally, driving it in bus lanes and blowing through toll booths without paying, sending a message that people should be allowed to drive electric cars - which weren’t classified for registration in Norway at the time - and, in fact, should be exempt from tolls, parking fees and bus lane restrictions for doing so. Harket's antics, heavily covered by the press, kicked off the country’s EV revolution - the following year, the government began implementing incentives for driving EVs, many of them closely resembling those that had been highlighted by the A-ha bandmates’ joyride. Last year, over half of all cars sold in Norway in 2020 were fully electric. Reasons to be Cheerful tells the whole nice story.