New car sales in Norway were dominated by electric vehicles last year, with EVs making up two-thirds of new vehicles sold.
Per a recent report from Reuters, Tesla was the top-selling new-car brand in the country, holding an 11.6 percent share of the overall Norwegian car market in 2021. The Tesla Model 3 sedan was the single most-popular new vehicle sold. Volkswagen was second place among car brands at 9.6 percent, with the VW ID.4 taking third place among singular models sold. The Toyota RAV4 hybrid was the second-most popular model, and the only vehicle in the top 10 equipped with an internal combustion engine.
Norway has a population of just 5.4 million people, but also the highest EV adoption rate in the world, per capita. Overall, new vehicle sales in Norway rose 25 percent last year to 176,276 units total. Sixty-five percent of those new sales were electric vehicles, a rise from 54 percent in 2020.
Norway aims to become the first country in the world to stop the sale of internal-combustion-powered cars, with new internal-combustion vehicle sales set to end by 2025.
The rise in electric vehicles sales is driven by tax exemptions, as well as hefty taxes placed on new internal-combustion vehicles. It’s estimated that EV tax cuts resulted in roughly $3.41 billion in lost revenue for the state. Looking ahead, Norway hopes to push EV adoption rates up to 80 percent of new vehicle sales this year. However, supply chain issues may slow that progress.
Last year, General Motors released a new Super Bowl video advertisement starring Will Ferrell, titled “No Way Norway.” In the ad, Ferrell learns that Norway has a higher EV adoption rate than the U.S., and convinces fellow celebrities Kenan Thompson and Awkwafina to join him in a journey to the Scandinavian country. The ad generated a considerable reaction, including from rival auto brands Ford and Audi.
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Comments
Norway is also a country where citizens are very heavily indebted, the second highest in the world, thanks to taxation and government policies like this.
The average household in the US has about 79% debt-to-income. In Norway, they’re 300% higher at 233% debt-to-income.
And this pertains to cars how? Or are you just sharing that AM talk radio Kool Aid? Norway has a far lower wealth inequality if you want to swap factoids.
Norway has massive oil revenue in a government sovereign weath fund as opposed to stuffing the pockets of Mobil and Total shareholders.
We make a similar effort on a much smaller scale in Alaska but Norwegians actually benefit from Norwegian oil–dramatic concept, right?
Uhhhh the average cost per gallon of gasoline is $6.27 per gallon in Norway. That’s the highest cost anywhere in the world. Norway also has the most bicycles in the world.
Want answers ? Just look to who has heavily invested in battery manufacturing.
Liar
The price of gasoline isn’t that important to the average Norwegian who is wns an electric car. I know it’s obvious but.
So the price of gasoline is the only measure of a country’s success, more indicative than life
expectancy !
Please cite your sources.
CNN.com
Households Debt to Income, Tradingeconomics.
Also look up OECD’s Data site… Household Debt (that one is disposable income compensated).
Thanks for putting this data out. There is no magic money pill that Norway discovered. Either you pay now or you wait until EVs become cheaper. There’s no other way.
This is why GM should be selling cars in Europe. It is a market that is more quickly adapting to EVs with some nations ahead of the US by close to a decade.
Stellantis wants to unload Russelheim which would be a great location for the manufacturer of a few vehicles with the rest of GM Europe being imported. GM needs new markets. When relations between the US and China turn sour a small, lean European operation will be important.
Europeans have historically never bought gm vehicles, even when they were sort of European brands like Opel, and they won’t buy them now. They buy their own domestics. Would be huge waste of money and resources, so it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Mary and her cronies decided to throw away other peoples money.
A partnership with Buick exclusively the only brand in Europe would be nice.
From the downvotes y’all rather have GM stay outta Europe?.
Honestly, yes. They’ve never had real success in Europe, and I highly doubt BEVs will change that. Lowercase gm should have stayed somewhat vested in entry level ICE vehicles, like the Sonic and Cruze, that helped pull them out of bankruptcy. Toyota does it, Volkswagen does it. gm only does in occasionally, when it benefits share holders.
Can we get a real explanation rather than whining?..
I’m not whining, just stating what are essentially the facts. European countries have historically never purchased gm products in great numbers, nor have they ever really expressed a desire to do so. Why should they waste time and resources in a market that doesn’t want the product. Particularly when gm is clearly struggling to tread water in their home country. Maybe instead of focusing on explotative sales and development in other countries (China) they should focus on the glaring domestic issues.
Didnt sell in numbers?, Opel , Vauxhall?, remember those?. Chevy can’t be worldwide, GM decided it wasn’t profitable as China and sold them to PSA. Can’t have it both ways, complaining about GM shrinking but against expansion in other markets. I guess the Latin American success is a mistake too and they should pullout?.
yep, i remember Opel, if you look at the comments i mentioned them before you did. They lost market share in Europe for decades. The last time that brand was profitable for gm was 1990, there’s a reason gm sold opel and exited the market. I’m complaining about gm shrinking domestically, I honestly couldn’t give a $h!t less about foreign sales. China has substantial humans rights violations and it disgusts me that gm invests so heavily there and so little at home. You would think with how woke lowercase gm is they would address the government sponsored concentration camps in northern China, but i guess it makes them too much money to care.
Give that same lecture to FCA, Ford, the Euros and such as they do business with them also. As said Buick is thriving in China in a still growing market as Opel and such never had, the development cost can be absorbed by Chinese sales alone.
On a sidenote Holden should have gone to Japan, UK and other RHD markets to stay alive, we see the results of staying primarily home market..
lol, the Japanese would NEVER buy a U.S. brand in significant numbers, they are nationalist. Plus they now make much better subcompacts then gm anyways.
Tells what you know. The Euros do very well in Japan. Outside of Cruze Holden never made a compact the Commodore should have went in there decades ago. My final point is a new small European operation can be spearheaded by Buick for premium vehicles aimed at VW that’s not cheap like Chevy nor 6 figure vehicles like Caddy.
European vehicles do terrible in Japan, do you even look at sales numbers before you form your opinions? Japan domestic makers account for over 75% of the auto sales in the country. VW and others fight for scraps.
So GM is supposed to win that market?, is this supposed to be a ball game?. Competing and winning a market is 2 different things. As said the Euros still do well for that remaining 25% that Holden should had gone for and Buick can aim for and go for other RHD nations.
Chevy could’ve stayed as a mostly lower level brand. Went for a foothold in central Europe. Open/obtain assembly in a country like Slovakia, as a bit of leverage to open more European markets to Chevy/GMC small block cash cows.
Could’ve kept Aussie production (don’t think their dollar was ever gonna stay high) and transitioned to Buicks badges there, IE, and the UK. Paired with Cadillac dealers as sibling brand, maybe in the US and Canada too. Then, go back into western Europe. Chinese assembly is a PR hit in a lot of other places no matter how it’s sliced.