EV Business Case Q1 2014

Norway Edition

Norway has been in the mainstream news lately for the otherworldly sales numbers of electric cars, and this is not a freak event, but something that has been consistently growing over the past few years, so i thought to look back and see how all this started.

This was always an EV-friendly country, even in the Second Age of the Electric Car, Norway always stood in the front of the electric car scene, with sales in the high three digits per year of cars like the Citröen Saxo Electrique, Peugeot 106 Electrique, REVA or the homegrown Kewet/Buddy EV.

Citröen Saxo Electrique

With the end of the Second Age, sales dropped to just 133 units in 2004 and 165 in 2005, with a slight increase in the following years (352 units in '06 and 321 in '07), but the Kewet/Buddy EV, the electric best seller at the time, looked more like a cartoon than a car, while also being slow and lacking modern car comforts.

Buddy EV

Despite that, sales started to grow, reaching 567 units in 2008, with the Buddy EV (209 sales) and Think City (183) as the major players.

Tesla Roadster

The next year one important car landed, it wasn't a best seller but the few units of the Tesla Roadster started to change people's minds and proved that electric cars could be fast, fun and something you actually wanted to own.

In 2010 sales (733 units) reached levels of the previous Second Age, showing that two of the three stakeholders (Consumers and Government) were ready for electric cars, now it was time for Car Manufacturers to step ahead and sell electric cars that appealed to consumers with a reasonable price to go along with it.

2011 was the first year of the current saga, 2.243 units were sold, reaching an EV share of 1,6% (The first time electrics cars passed the 1% barrier anywhere), with the Mitsubishi I-Miev winning the Electric Best Seller title, with 1.050 registrations and reclaiming for itself also the Best Selling City Car title, another first for a plug-in car.

Mitsubishi I-Miev

Things really took off in following year with the Nissan Leaf selling 2.298 units, pulling the market up to 4.700 units and 3,12% EV share, with regular appearances in the general Top 20 for the japanese hatch.

Nissan Leaf

2013 is (Modern) History: Sales skyrocketing and a First in September, the Tesla Model S winning the Best Selling Car title, all categories included, for the first time ever!

For 2014 the EV Share is at 16% and we seem to have reached a tipping point where electric cars have entered the minds of mainstream consumers as just another option besides gas and diesel, instead of a weird thing made for tree-huggers.