In March, the Norwegian passenger car market expanded by 19.3 percent year-over-year to 19,366 units. However, because of the weaker January and February, the total number of registrations in the first quarter was over 11 percent lower than a year ago, at 28,665.
The most important news is that plug-in electric cars finally noted some growth, after two months of decline, despite the fact that plug-in hybrids continue their downward trend for the 15th consecutive month.
According to the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV), 17,648 new passenger plug-in cars were registered last month (up 18 percent year-over-year), which is about 91.1 percent of the total volume.
The main force is of course all-electric cars, which noted 16,811 new registrations (up 20 percent year-over-year) and 86.8 percent market share. Meanwhile, PHEV market share is now at the lowest level since September 2015.
Stats for the month (only passenger cars):
- BEVs: 16,811 (up 20%) and 86.8% market share
- PHEVs: 837 (down 12%) and 4.3% market share
- Total: 17,648 (up 18%) and 91.1% market share
So far this year, more than 25,000 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in Norway, which is 12 less than a year ago.
Plug-in car registrations year-to-date:
- BEVs: 24,231 (down 10%, at 84.5% market share)
- PHEVs: 1,540 (down 34%, at 5.4% market share)
- Total: 25,771 (down 12%, at 89.9% market share)
For reference, in 12 months of 2022, more than 153,000 new plug-in electric cars were registered in Norway (up 0.8 percent year-over-year).
In March, the most registered car (regardless of the powertrain) was the Tesla Model Y with 7,442 units (38.4 percent of the total market). This massive result strengthened Model Y as #1 year-to-date with 8,714 units (30.4 percent share). It’s pretty spectacular that one car captures over 30 percent of the market.
An interesting thing is that the next two most popular models last month were the all-new Toyota bZ4X (1,076) and the Volvo XC40 Recharge (933), ahead of the Volkswagen ID.4 (675) and Volkswagen ID.3 (603).
As we can see in the table below, the top five for the year are the same as for the month. The strong position of the Toyota bZ4X, ahead of the Volkswagen ID.4, makes us really curious about the future results in 2023.
