As EV registrations in Norway were historically low in the first month of the year, February shows signs of improvement. The share of battery-electric vehicles has grown fivefold. However, sales were still down 8,7% compared to February last year.

 “Not at cruising speed yet, but cautiously gaining traction,” is the official statement from the Norwegian car registration body OFV. With the switch to the new year, the Norwegian car market swept from a record high in December 2022 (almost 40 000 units) to a record low in January 2023 (1 860 units). The country hadn’t witnessed such meager figures since 1962.

Side-effects of imposed tax

As full-electric models account for 80% of the market, the slump was attributed to the changed government incentives, which have installed taxes on models above the threshold of 500 000 kroner since the 1st of January 2023. Dealers and customers pushed hard by the end of the year to get as many registrations through as possible, with an unseen backfiring of the deadline effect in January.

February brings an end to the shock effect and normalizes the market, as car registrations for electric cars grew from 1 237 units in January to 6 183 in February. As in the rest of Europe, the Tesla Model Y is the top-seller (1 271 units), followed by the newcomer, Toyota bZ4x (568 units), not missing its debut in the trailblazing Scandinavian country for EV driving.

No Hyundai in top ten

The Japanese carmaker succeeds in giving a sneer at the ambitious Volkswagen, which comes in at third (ID.3, 535 units) and fourth place (ID.4, 485 units). The top five is completed by the Volvo XC40 (410 units). Remarkably, the Tesla Model 3 only comes in at sixth place (272 units), while Hyundai doesn’t have a single BEV model in the top ten.

February confirms that the share of BEVs has stabilized at 80% in Norway (83,1 % for February, to be exact). However, the director of OFV Oyvind Solberg Thorsen believes their share will rise during the course of the year and reach 90% by December, even if government incentives are less stimulating than before. He bets on new incoming models from the Asian market, which have a lower price point and are, therefore, still eligible for tax-free purchase.

Nine out of ten

On top of the battery-powered cars, 521 plug-in hybrids were registered, a market share of 7%. Adding both up means nine out of the cars sold in Norway have a socket on their bodywork. In the first two months combined, the Norwegian car market shows a slump of 42,3% on a year-to-year comparison. Thorsen a positive correction and points at the delay in the backlog of dealers. The size of this bottleneck will become clear in the next months, according to him.