Tesla Model Y tops Norway sales charts in August ahead of German production start

The Tesla Model Y was Norway's best-selling car in the month of August, the Norwegian Road Federation said, although the company has not yet started building the full-electric SUV in Europe as planned.

Industry experts said Tesla has been importing the Model Y from Shanghai, although the company would not confirm the source of the vehicles. 

Sales of the Model Y have just started in Europe, but in Norway it overtook another EV, the Ford Mach-E, to top the charts, the Norwegian Road Federation, or OFV, told Automotive News Europe. 

There were 1,309 Model Ys registered in August, ahead of 907 for the Mach-E and 861 for the VW ID4 full-electric SUV, OFV figures showed. 

Norway has long been Europe’s largest electric vehicle market as measured by share. In August electric cars reached 72 percent of the total sold, figures from the OFV showed. 

The Tesla Model 3 sedan was Norway’s best-selling car through August with 7,048 registrations, OFV data shows. 

The Model 3 was also Europe’s best-selling electric car through July with 66,683 sales, beating the VW ID3 hatchback, according to data from Berlin-based analyst Matthias Schmidt.

Tesla aims to start production of the Model Y at its delayed Berlin plant before the end of the year, the company has said.

Until then, Tesla has been exporting the Model Y from Shanghai, according to industry experts. The Model Y is also produced at Tesla’s Fremont, California, factory.

Tesla appears to be moving away from its previous strategy of sourcing cars for Europe from the Fremont factory. "European Tesla shipments are overwhelmingly shifting to Sino-manufactured models," Berlin-based analyst Matthias Schmidt said in a report published in August. 

Tesla watcher and hedge fund Snow Bull Capital tweeted on Aug. 30 that its ship tracker showed "a record number" of car-carrying vessels contracted by Tesla leaving Shanghai in the quarter ending August.

The start of sales of the Model Y will give Tesla an important entry into the key electric SUV segment after sales of the larger Model X SUV shrunk to just 239 in Europe in the first six months of the year, data from JATO Dynamics shows. 

In July SUVs accounted for exactly half of all electric car sales in Western Europe for the first time, data from Schmidt showed. 

"Once Tesla's Model Y enters the European markets, SUV/Crossovers are expected to remain consistently at around the 50 percent mark," he said.