Sales of electric cars reached 80.7% last May, recuperating from a minor setback in April. It seems Norwegian buyers aren’t turning their backs to battery-powered cars after less generous incentives were introduced at the beginning of the year. The fiscal change of heart is most noticeable among premium cars, which have become less popular.

The Norwegian car market in general, has been in decline, as ownership of zero-emission cars has been less stimulated since the start of the year. However, the overall dip of 5% in a year-on-year comparison is mainly attributed to a harsher economic environment, according to the OFV, Norway’s central bureau for car registrations.

On average 16.3 g/km

As for the sales of electric cars, the outlook is improving again. With particularly strong sales in March (16 800 units), their sales plummeted in April (7 471 units) but rebounded in May to 10 773 units. The latter represents an increase also to the year before when electric cars accounted for 73.2% and now settle for 80.7%. Plug-in hybrids took a further blow, falling from 1 375 units to 703 in May in a year-on-year comparison. The average CO2 emissions for all new cars sold was 16.3 g/km.

Traditionally, May is a strong month for Norwegian car sales and a similar trend is witnessed in other European countries. France for example reported a growth of 14.7% and in the Netherlands the market rallied to a surge of almost 42%.

The statistics show how Norway continues on its road map towards full electrification despite tuning down on incentives. Sales of petrol (1.2%) and diesel (2.1%) cars have become a marginal phenomenon.

Model Y writes history

The big winner in the Norwegian popularity list is Tesla, which now accounts for one-fourth of the electric car sales. The best-selling EV is the Model Y – no surprise as the car grabbed the world title of the most popular car during the first quarter of this year. Nine out of ten Tesla’s finding a Norwegian owner is a Model Y. “We’ve never witnessed before that basically one car model soaks up one-fourth of the Norwegian new car registrations”, comments Solberg Thorsen, director of OFV.

The Tesla Model Y (2 691 units) is followed by the Volkswagen ID.4 (738) and then the BMW iX (594) in third place. Also noteworthy is the strong performance of the VW ID. Buzz Cargo in the light commercial vehicle category. With 174 units sold it was not only the most popular van in May, but also so far this year.