Norway continues to be a shining star in the electric vehicle world. In the first half of the year, 48% of automobiles sold in the country were fully electric, a global record for EV market share. Plug-in vehicles represented 69% of auto sales, another global record.
As a time when Europe has risen its EV market share among its overall auto market to about 7%, at a time when Tesla sales are blowing up in the US auto market, at a time when China is solidly maturing the EV market in its borders, Japan is playing hide & seek while hoping a fuel cell magic trick somehow produces real magic.
Last month I published that the Audi e-tron was the king of Norway. That hasn’t changed, and it doesn’t look likely that anyone’s going knock its crown off this year. But never count Tesla out.
Norway remains one of the most fascinating auto markets in the world. With a 70% plug-in vehicle market share in the first 4 months of 2020, there is nothing that comes close to it. That isn’t an overnight figure either — the country has been far ahead of any other market in terms of plug-in vehicle market share for several years.
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.
In 2019, 56% of Norway’s vehicle sales were sales of plug-in vehicles. Fully electric vehicles (BEVs) alone collected 42% of the market, according to EV Volumes.
When it comes to electric vehicle adoption, Norway is king of the hill. Nearly 2 out of every 3 passenger vehicles sold in Norway come with a plug. In October, the plug-in vehicle share was 59%, a bit higher than the 56% plug-in vehicle hold for January–October.
Yesterday, I attended the Drive Electric Week event in New Port Richey. Next week, if all goes as planned, I’ll attend another one in Florida. I’ve been attending these sorts of events for a few years. Although I enjoy them, I don’t think they are very effective at their stated purpose. Every time I attend a Drive Electric event, it seems that it is preaching to the choir. I was happy to see a few non-EV owners at the event, but the majority of the people there owned an EV.
California’s a huge market for Tesla, the Netherlands loves Tesla, Switzerland loves Tesla, but no state or country is as Tesla obsessed as Norway.
Global sales, growth, and market data for China, the US, and Europe
