Tesla Model 3 = 12.4% of All Norwegian Vehicle Sales January–July 2019

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.

Whereas electric vehicles are still at 1–2% market share in many auto markets, or 6–10% in good markets, fully electric vehicles accounted for 38% of new passenger vehicle sales in Norway last month.

If you’re like me, you’d like to check your senses now and confirm the 38% related to fully electric vehicles, not also plug-in hybrids. Indeed, that’s only for the purest of the pure, while another 25% were hybrids, 41% of which were plug-in hybrids. That means nearly 50% of new vehicle sales were plug-in vehicles sales.

King of the hill among all of these electric and electrified vehicles, as usual, was the Tesla Model 3. The Model 3 is so popular there that it accounted for 12.4% of the Norwegian auto market in January–July of this year. Good luck finding a country with a 12.4% EV market share, let alone a 12.4% Tesla Model 3 market share. That percentage means that one out of every eight vehicles sold in the country was a Model 3 — not for one month, not for two months, but for a 7 month timespan.

For some more perspective, #2 on the list is the Volkswagen Golf at 7% market share, and the #3 Nissan LEAF is another sizable step down to 4.2% market share. Not too shabby, but clear levels below the #1 Model 3.

The Golf sales includes electric Golfs and non-electrics, but most should be the electric version. Here’s a chart on the top 20 with those figures embedded:

It’s sort of wild to see these Norwegian stats, even though it’s also so logical, and it’s especially wild to see the charts that come from them. Norway is an EV powerhouse, and Norwegians love the Tesla Model 3.

Regular readers may wish to check out now, but people new to the topic might be wondering at the moment how a single model can account for much of a country’s vehicle sales. Some reasons include:

• The Model 3 is the quickest car anywhere near its price.
• The Model 3 is the highest tech car anywhere near its price.
• Norwegian policies put heavy taxes on gasoline and diesel cars, to account for the costly pollution they create, which leads to electric vehicles being much more cost competitive (especially if you calculate total cost of ownership since electric cars are much more efficient and require much less maintenance). This has long been a policy and the government has long supported EVs, so EV awareness is very high. The Model 3 is widely considered the best value for the money in the EV market and the broader auto market.
• Norwegian policies and some city policies also encourage EV use by allowing EVs to use bus lanes, drive on toll roads for free, get free parking, and benefit from other such incentives.
• The Model 3 tops safety ratings.
• The Model 3 is pretty, cool, and prestigious despite its relatively low cost.
• Driving a Model 3 is essentially an unmatched experience.
• EVs are a critical solution to deadly air pollution and catastrophic global heating.
• The games and fun Easter eggs. Come on.

If you are interested in buying a Tesla Model 3 (or Model S or X) and need a referral code to get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging, feel free to use ours: http://ts.la/tomasz7234