Electric cars reach new 52% market share record in Norway thanks to Tesla’s record deliveries

As we anticipated with Tesla breaking its monthly delivery record in Norway halfway through December, the new electric vehicles contributed to electric car market share reaching a new 52 percent record in the country last month.

It means that if a passenger car is sold in Norway today, it’s more likely going to be a plug-in electric (BEV or PHEV) than a gas-powered vehicle.

December has historically been a good month for EV sales in Norway, but it’s still it’s a significant increase from 40 percent in December 2016.

Tesla was largely responsible for the increase last month due to its cyclic delivery schedule in Europe. The California-based automaker delivered 1,032 Model S sedans and 1,429 Model X SUVs.

The vehicles were the second and first bestselling passenger cars respectively for the month.

As for the full year 2017, BEVs and PHEVs captured 39.2 percent of the market – up from 29.1 percent in 2016.

According to registration data from BilNorge, the VW Golf is still dominating the market if you account for all its versions, including the e-Golf all-electric version, with 12,164 sales in 2017.

The BMW i3 had a stellar year in Norway with 5,036 deliveries followed by the Toyota Rav4, which is the first vehicle on the list without an electric powertrain.

Tesla’s Model X arrived in fourth for the entire year with 4,748 units, while Model S finished 8th with 3,712.

5 of the top 15 bestselling models in 2017 were all-electric cars and 13 out of the 15 models have electric powertrain options.

Finally, Norway again beat its average C02 emission for new vehicles with 74 g/km in December and 82 g/km for the entire year 2017.

Electrek’s Take

We are getting used to Norway leading the way for electric vehicle adoption, but it’s still nice to see them go. The country is now well on its way to reaching its goal of only putting new zero-emission vehicles on its roads by 2025.

And it’s especially impressive since they are doing it before several important new EVs are coming to market, like Tesla’s Model 3, which will undoubtedly push those numbers much higher.

In 2017, Tesla went from the 14th most popular automaker in the country to the 7th – and that’s by going only from one to two models on the market.

If the Model X can enable that jump, I’d bet that Model 3 could bring Tesla to the top spot within a year of launching in the country, which should happen late this year.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.