Norway January 2017

 37% Share!

January is usually a slow month for EV's, but somehow Norway forgot to read the memo, as it had beaten its sales record last month, with 4.831 new plug-in passenger cars sold in Norway last month, up 72% YoY, with the market share reaching a record 37%(!).

And the Opel Ampera-e and new VW e-Golf are still to arrive...Will we see this year a month where plug-ins are the majority?

Looking at the Top Sellers, if the #1 BMW i3 isn't exactly a surprise, the others are, albeit the Nissan Leaf is a surprise for different reasons, while the PHEV's have all beaten their personal bests (New benefits?), the Japanese EV surprises for being able to not only resist the slew of new models and announcements, but actually increase sales from the 284 units of January 2015 to the current 352. Heavy discounting is a possible explanation and if so, it touches a market segment still uncovered by EV's: Bargain seekers, people that do not care for the latest technology, but are sensible to a good deal.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	BMW i3	622
2	Volkswagen Passat GTE	411
3	Volvo XC90 T8	398
4	Nissan Leaf	352
5	Mercedes GLC350e	275

Looking elsewhere, the ZE40 version is starting to be noticed on the Renault Zoe registrations, with 240 units, its best result in seven months, while the Tesla Model X had higher than expected number of deliveries, no doubt linked to the delays of the last quarter of 2016.

Slow start for the 2016 Best Sellers, as the VW Golf GTE started in Sixth (Not too bad), its all-electric sibling e-Golf was only #9, which could be explained by the upcoming new battery pack coming, but for the last year Top Dog, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, it is difficult to see why it was only #15, with 144 units, its worst performance in a year...

In the manufacturers ranking, Volkswagen (20%) started the year ahead of the Manufacturers trophy but the Second Placed BMW (18%) is dangerously close, with Mercedes and Volvo, both at 11% share, running for Third Place.

Looking at Fuel Cell numbers, Hyundai registered six FCEV's last month, while the Toyota Mirai started the year with a big round Zero. Not a good sign, Toyota... 

Pl	Norway	Jan.	YTD	%	'16Pl
1	BMW i3	622	622	13	5
2	Volkswagen Passat GTE	411	411	8	6
3	Volvo XC90 T8	398	398	8	19
4	Nissan Leaf	352	352	7	4
5	Mercedes GLC350e	275	275	6	21
6 7 8	Volkswagen Golf GTE Renault Zoe Tesla Model X	257 240 238	257 240 238	5 5 5	3 10 11
9	Volkswagen e-Golf	235	235	5	2
10	BMW 225xe Active Tourer	170	170	3	12
11 11	BMW X5 40e Hyundai Ioniq Electric	166 166	166 166	3 3	16 20
13	Volvo V60 Plug-In	162	162	3	17
14 15 16	Audi Q7 e-Tron Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Mercedes C350e	155 144 129	155 144 129	3 3 3	22 1 15
16 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 31	Tesla Model S Audi A3 e-Tron Kia Soul EV Volkswagen e-Up! Mercedes B250e Mercedes GLE500e BMW 330e Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Mitsubishi I-Miev Peugeot iOn Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia BMW 740e Citröen C-Zero BMW i8 Kia Optima PHEV Ford Focus Electric	129 118 85 77 70 56 51 33 30 20 17 12 6 3 2 2	129 118 85 77 70 56 51 33 30 20 17 12 6 3 2 2	3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0	8 7 13 14 9 28 24 30 25 23 18 38 26 33 39 32
	TOTAL	4.831	4.831	100

Source: elbil.no; ofvas.no

Models breakdown by Fuel Source

Pl	Model	Sales
1	BMW i3	622
2	Toyota RAV4	473
3	Volkswagen Passat GTE	411
4	Volvo XC90 T8	398
5 6 7 8 9 10	Skoda Octavia Nissan Leaf Toyota Yaris Toyota Auris Mercedes GLC350e Volkswagen Golf GTE	358 352 343 280 275 257

With 37% share, plug-ins are starting to spread across the general ranking, with the BMW i3 winning this ranking for the third time in four months(!) and a record six plug-ins in the Top 10.

The remaining podium positions belong to the Toyota RAV4, now a common sight here, and the VW Passat GTE, which is responsible for 80% of all VW Passat registrations.

More impressive are the plug-in share of models like the Mercedes GLC and Volvo XC90, where 97%(!) of registrations belong to their PHEV versions, if these shares keep this way in the near future, there will be a time where we will see these and other brands announce the end of the regular ICE versions "Due to lack of demand". Imagine that...Looking at Norway's EV market feels more and more like looking into the future.

Interestingly, there is only one regular ICE in the Top 10, the #5 Skoda Octavia, with four PHEV's, two BEV's and three HEV's filling the remaining positions...Another sign that Norway is on the fast track for electrification.