Norway, the leading country in the electric transport revolution, saw plugin electric vehicles take 83.3% share in May 2021, up from 65.6% in May 2020. Non-plugin powertrains, including old-school combustion and plugless hybrids, are all fading away. Overall auto volumes were back to pre-Covid seasonal norms, at 14,063 units in May. The Ford Mustang Mach-E saw a big push and was Norway’s overall bestselling vehicle in May.
May’s 83.3% combined plugin result comprised 60.4% battery electrics (BEVs) and 22.9% plugin hybrids (PHEVs), which is a swing towards BEV from recent weightings. PHEV share was almost flat year-on-year (from 22.6% in May 2020), but is still growing in the year-to-date cumulative result, at 27% from 20% a year ago. Combined cumulative plugin share for 2021 year-to-date stands at 81.9% from 69.0% a year ago.
Plugless hybrids are down to 7.8% from 11.5% in May 2020. Old-school combustion is reaching its end-game at a combined 8.9% share with diesel at an all time low of 4.1% share:
Best Selling BEVs
Norway’s most popular BEVs year-to-date are the Volkswagen ID.4 and Tesla Model 3, with the Audi e-tron, and Volvo XC-40 also enduringly popular:
Newcomers the Ford Mustang Mach-E, and Skoda Enyaq, have seen strong recent volumes, enough to be already climbing on to the rankings of the year’s best sellers. May saw the fist serious volume of Mach-E arrive in Norway with a particularly large push of 1383 units, which appears to have targeted Norway specifically (provisional data suggests other European markets didn’t get much volume). This was enough to see the Ford take May’s top spot for overall bestselling auto in Norway:
It remains to be seen whether the Ford will be able to sustain volumes that keep it in or near the top 5 spots; it seems unlikely since Ford have hinted that they will only ship a total of ~30,000 units to Europe in 2021, and most will presumably be going to the much larger BEV markets of Germany, France, and the UK.
Ford Mustang Mach-E deliveries begin in Norway. Ford Motors Norway Communications & Public Affairs Director Anne Sønsteby; CEO of Ford Motors Norway, Per Gunnar Berg; Norway’s first Mustang Mach-E customer, Einar Flåte; and CEO of RøhneSelmer, Kjetil Hagestande. Image courtesy of Ford.
The Skoda Enyaq, with only its 2nd month of volume deliveries, is joining its group sibling the VW ID.4 as another successful MEB crossover. The MEB team will be further bolstered by the Audi Q4 e-tron which will see volume deliveries “during the summer,” Audi has said. Taken as a whole, these MEB crossover triplets will surely be unassailable this year, both in Norway and probably in Europe as a whole.
Any update of the evolving fleet powertrain share is on hiatus until we have freshly collated fleet data, which should come sometime soon after the close of Q2 in June. If you want a reminder, here’s the picture of fleet share as it stood at the end of Q1 2021 (x-axis squished to make the gradient changes more visible):
With compelling new models arriving in decent volumes all the time, this year should see Norway’s plugin market share climb above 85% and perhaps get within a whisker of 90%. What do you think? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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