Electric Vehicles Now 68% of Auto Sales in Norway

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Audi e-tron, courtesy Audi.

The Norwegian auto market continues to electrify more and more, with a whopping 68% of new vehicle sales being plug-in vehicle sales in February. Unsurprisingly, in a market that plugged into the EV revolution, many EV enthusiasts are not keen on calling plug-in hybrids “electric vehicles,” but plug-in hybrids still offer a significant improvement compared to plugless vehicles. As Max Holland wrote earlier this month, fully electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for 50% of new vehicle sales in the country. In this piece, based on EV Volumes data, I’ll dive into the model breakdown. For more on the fuel shift, check out Max’s piece.

In February, the Audi e-tron was clearly king of the hill, followed at a distance but in a safe second by the Volkswagen e-Golf. Norwegians do love their German brands. The steady, ancient, well known Nissan LEAF came in third to close out the top 3. The evergreen Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV took a familiar position on top of the plug-in hybrid market, several positions above the Volvo XC60 T8 in the overall plug-in rankings.

The results are similar if you add January into the mix, but the Renault Zoe and Hyundai Kona EV rise above the Outlander PHEV in this ranking, keeping aforementioned unloved plug-in hybrids out of the top 5, and 8 of the top 9 electric vehicles are 100% electrics. (The 10th in the top 10 is another plug-in hybrid.)

Looking at those first two months of the year, the e-tron accounted for a strong 16% of the sales and the e-Golf 9% (a good sign for the coming Volkswagen ID.3!). The LEAF, Kona EV, and Zoe each gobbled up 6% of the plug-in market. If you throw in the #5 Outlander PHEV (5%) and #6 BMW i3 (4%), you pass 50% of the plug-in market. That means that more than a third of vehicles sold in Norway last month were one of those 6 models. One out of every 11 vehicles sold in the country was the e-tron.

We’ll see how many people get their Tesla Model 3 at the end of the quarter. It also shouldn’t be that long before we see Tesla Model Y deliveries begin in Norway, and it is sure to be a top seller. Well, it may be another year before the Model Y makes it across the ocean. We’ll see.

Regarding Tesla sales, some have noticed that they are down considerably year over year in Norway. It’s worth remembering that Tesla was only delivering the Model 3 in the US and Canada for a long time, and then once it started delivering to Europe, it put those countries on significant pause to provide Europe with a monsoon. Additionally, it has simply taken a long time for ships to arrive in Europe this quarter. Perhaps I’m wrong, but that — especially combined with the Tesla website indicating a months-long wait to get a custom-ordered Model 3 — indicates Tesla has had enough demand in the US to delay European deliveries longer than normal. Or perhaps something else is going on. I’ve heard of one local Model 3 buyer getting his car much quicker than expected. We’ll find out soon enough what’s happening with Tesla, and then we’ll just have the big coronavirus question mark hovering over our heads regarding coming months and quarters.

Special thanks to José Pontes and EV Volumes for support with data in this article.

If you prefer charts with “Others” included, here are those:

Related: The EV Adoption Ramps in 4 Top Electric Vehicle Countries

If you’d like to buy a Tesla Model 3, Model S, or Model X and get some free Supercharging miles, feel free to use my special, magical, unicorn-blessed referral code: https://ts.la/zachary63404. You can also get a $100 discount on Tesla solar with that code. There is currently no use for a referral code when putting down a reservation for a Cybertruck or Model Y.


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

Zachary Shahan has 7324 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan