Norway is again showing that the all-electric car future is closer than people think, as November car sales in the country see internal combustion engine car sales crumble.
The Scandinavian country has been the leading market for electric vehicles in term of adoption per capita.
As many markets are introducing plans to “ban” gas-powered cars by 2030, 2035, and even later, Norway is aiming for each new car on the road to be all-electric by 2025, and it’s on pace to achieve that early.
The results this year have been nothing short of stunning, with the November numbers released today being no exception.
Norway is reporting 73.8% of sales last month coming from all-electric vehicles, and the number goes up to 94.9% when adding all vehicles with batteries:
| Passenger cars | Number in November 2021 | Market share in November 2021 | Market share in November 2020 | Market share so far in 2021 | Market share same period in 2020 |
| Only petrol engine | 356 | 2.3% | 5.1% | 4.4% | 8.9% |
| Only diesel engine | 416 | 2.7% | 5.4% | 4.1% | 9.3% |
| Hybrids all | 3,288 | 21.1% | 33.3% | 27.4% | 29.7% |
| Zero emissions | 11,274 | 73.8% | 56.1% | 64.2% | 52.2% |
Tesla is leading sales with both the best-selling and second best-selling vehicles in the market last month:
- Tesla Model Y: 1,013 units
- Tesla Model 3: 771 units
- Volkswagen ID.4: 725 units
- Audi Q4 e-tron: 661 units
- Nissan Leaf: 655 units
Tesla is often a difference maker in the market because its volume comes by boat late in the quarter. Therefore, the month of December is expected to show even more EV sales in Norway with a larger Model 3 and Model Y shipment.
Electrek’s Take
EV detractors like to say that Norway is not a good example since it’s just a small market that has extremely strong EV incentives, and therefore, it’s not representative of other markets.
I disagree.
Norway made a needed market correction by taxing gas-powered cars to truly represent their costs.
With this market correction, electric vehicles are prevailing as the best solution as more EV options are hitting the market.
While other markets are more tentative in making the same market correction and are instead rolling out EV incentives that are clunkier but easier to accept politically, electric vehicles are closing the gap in terms of the value proposition.
When it does fully close that gap in virtually all segments, which I see happening in the next four years, the exact same thing that’s happening in Norway right now will be happening in most other markets.
The automakers who believe that will not happen until 2030 or even 2035 are going to have to readjust in record time or go bankrupt.
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