Norway's EV sales rise to record 54% market share

OSLO -- Electric-car sales in Norway overtook those of vehicles powered by combustion and hybrid engines last year.

Full-electric cars made up 54 percent of all new cars sold in the Nordic country in 2020, up from 42 percent in 2019 and from 1 percent of the overall market a decade ago, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said.

Norway aims to become the first nation to end the sale of gasoline and diesel cars by 2025 and it exempts full-electric vehicles from taxes imposed on those that use fossil fuels.

The policy has turned the country's car market into a test for automakers seeking a path to a future without internal combustion engines, vaulting new brands and models to the top of bestseller lists in recent years.

While the sale of full-electric cars had broken the 50 percent mark in individual months, 2020 was the first time that they outsold the combined volume of models containing internal combustion engines for a year as a whole.

"We are definitely on track to reach the 2025 target," OFV CEO Oeyvind Thorsen told a news conference.

EV sales accelerated in the final months of 2020, hitting its highest level for any single month in December, with a 67 percent share of the car market.

Audi topped the 2020 sales with its e-tron SUV and Sportsback models as the best-selling new cars in Norway last year, while Tesla's Model 3, the 2019 winner, was in second place.

EV sales are set to continue to soar in 2021, industry analysts and car distributors said, as more models are brought to the market.

"Our preliminary forecast is for electric cars to surpass 65 percent of the market in 2021," said Christina Bu who heads the Norwegian EV Association, an interest group. "If we manage that, the goal of selling only zero-emission cars in 2025 will be within reach."

Tesla's Model Y SUV is set to reach the Norwegian market this year, as are the first electric SUVs from Ford, BMW and Volkswagen.

By contrast, cars with diesel-only engines have tumbled from a peak of 76 percent of the overall Norwegian market in 2011 to just 8.6 percent last year.

New-car sales in the country last year were 141,412, of which 76,789 were full-electric.

While the EV market share will keep rising, there is uncertainty around how many vehicles automakers will allocate to Norway as European demand is increasing, said Harald Frigstad, CEO at Norwegian car importer Bertel O. Steen.

The seller of Mercedes-Benz, Kia, Peugeot, Opel, Citroen, DS and Smart brands, predicted around 70 percent of its sales would be of full-electric models in 2021.