Norway October 2017

"i3 who?!? I eat two of those for breakfast..."

E-Golf smashes the competition

After a record September, the Norwegian plug-in market returned to more regular performances, registering 5.351 units (43% share), which is still up 48% YoY, leading to an increase in the YTD tally to some 48.000 registrations, up 31% YoY, and pulling the 2017 plug-in share north again, now at 38%. Will it reach 40% by year end?

Interestingly, the overall fuels share in October not only paint the rise of plug-ins, with BEVs registering 21% share and PHEV 22%, but also the demise of diesel-powered cars, scoring only 20% share, not only below plug-ins, but also behind regular gas cars (23% share), with the remainder (14%) going to regular HEVs.

Looking at October Top Sellers, it was all about the VW e-Golf, not only it scored a new personal best (1.168 deliveries), but it also performed the second highest result ever for a plug-in in Norway, only behind the 1.493 Tesla Model S registered in March 2014. VW's glass factory must be going in full steam...


In Second Place we have the BMW i3, with 417 deliveries, its best result in four months, while the last place of the podium went to the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, that thanks to some nice discounts, revived the SUV career, registering 411 units, its best result in over a year.

Just outside the podium, we have two surprises, in Fourth Place we have the Volvo XC60 PHEV, with 275 units, as the result of Volvo's PHEV ramp up, meaning we should see their models more frequently in this Top 5, while in Fifth Place we see the old geezer Nissan Leaf teaching the young ones a lesson or two, by delivering 269 units, an impressive performance, considering its successor is less than three months away.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Volkswagen e-Golf	1.146
2	BMW i3	417
3	Mitsu. Outlander PHEV	411
4	Volvo XC60 PHEV	275
5	Nissan Leaf	269

Looking at the YTD ranking, the most important news were the return of the VW Passat GTE to #5, changing places with the Tesla Model X, while the Mercedes B250e dropped two positions to #14, having registered only 22 units. The end is near for the Mercedes BEV...

Another model registering low numbers, and in this case without any logical reason, is the Renault Zoe, registering only 18 units in October, which itself was preceded by only 38 units in September. Given the overall success of the model across Europe, one wonders why would it suddenly tank in the largest European market. Is Renault doing a Kia-thing, prioritizing EU-markets, in order to comply with the CO2 mandate?

In the second half of the ranking, the VW e-Up! was...up one position, to #20, thanks to 137 deliveries, its best result in 26 months, while the Volvo XC60 PHEV climbed two positions to #22.

In the manufacturers ranking, Volkswagen (23%, up 1%) is in the leadership, with BMW (16%, down 1%) in Second, while Tesla (11%) is ahead of Mercedes (10%) in the race for the Third Spot.

Footnote: Five additional Hyundai FCEVs and one Mirai were added in October, with the Hyundai SUV leading the 2017 race by 25 to 13, despite being an older model. Sharewise, FCEVs have 0,03% share of the market.

Pl	Norway	Oct.	YTD	%	'16Pl
1	Volkswagen e-Golf	1.168	5.699	12	2
2	BMW i3	417	4.166	9	5
3	Nissan Leaf	269	3.180	7	4
4 5 6	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Volkswagen Passat GTE Tesla Model X	411 207 130	3.150 2.859 2.824	7 6 6	1 6 11
7 8	Mercedes GLC350e Tesla Model S	135 162	2.312 2.185	5 5	21 8
9	Volkswagen Golf GTE	210	2.095	4	3
10 11	Renault Zoe BMW 225xe Active Tourer	18 232	1.898 1.757	4 4	10 12
12	Volvo XC90 T8	193	1.494	3	19 9
13 14 15 16 17	Hyundai Ioniq Electric Mercedes B250e Audi A3 e-Tron Mercedes C350e Opel Ampera-e	160 22 137 117 35	1.450 1.438 1.361 1.061 958	3 3 3 2 2	20 9 7 15 N/A
18 19	Audi Q7 e-Tron BMW X5 40e	86 114	873 866	2 2	22 16
20	Volkswagen e-Up!	137	719	1	14
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30	Volvo V60 Plug-In Volvo XC60 PHEV Kia Soul EV Volvo S/V90 PHEV BMW 530e Toyota Prius PHV Mini Countryman PHEV BMW 330e Kia Optima PHEV Mercedes E350e Others	70 275 56 137 43 31 72 36 28 27 216	688 637 601 537 379 365 332 311 309 231 1.592	1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 3	17 N/A 13 N/A N/A N/A N/A 24 39 N/A
	TOTAL	5.351	48.327	100

Source: elbil.no; ofvas.no

Models breakdown by Fuel Source

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Volkswagen e-Golf	1.168
2	Toyota RAV4	437
3	BMW i3	417
4	Mitsu. Outlander PHEV	411
5 6 7 8 9 10	Toyota Yaris Toyota Auris Volvo XC60 PHEV Toyota C-HR Nissan Leaf Skoda Octavia	386 315 275 272 269 250

With 43% PEV share, the general market is showing the electric road in unstoppable, breaking down sales by fuel source, we have four HEVs, two PHEVs, three BEVs and only one ICE model, that showed up only in #10.

This month the VW e-Golf is high above everyone else, with 700 units more than the Second Placed Toyota RAV4, with another BEV, the BMW i3,  closing the podium.

Two plug-in hybrids (Outlander PHEV and Volvo XC60 PHEV) and three additional Toyota hybrids (Yaris, Auris and C-HR) follow, with another BEV (Nissan Leaf) in #9, and the only ICE model (Skoda Octavia) closing the Top 10.

After September having been the first "NO ICE" Top 10 month ever, will we see the same happening in December? I wouldn't bet against it.