Norway achieves 89 per cent EV share in 2024

Norway has long been regarded as a model country for electric cars and underpins this with its annual statistics for 2024: nine out of ten new cars were electric. In December, however, the proportion of electric cars was slightly below average.

In December, 11,668 new electric cars hit the roads, according to the Norwegian Road Information Authority (OFV). Compared to December 2023, that represents an increase of 30.3 per cent. In the year as a whole, there were 114,409 new electric cars, an increase of 9.4 per cent. As the OFV registered a total of 128,691 new registrations, this corresponds to an EV share of 88.9 per cent of the new car market. In 2023, it was still 82.4 per cent.

In December, the proportion of emission-free cars was slightly below the annual average at 85.5 per cent, while results of more than 90 per cent were not uncommon in previous months – in November, it was around 93.6 per cent. It is important to note that combustion engines are not banned in Norway from 2025, as is often described, but the political goal is to achieve a 100 per cent share of electric cars in new vehicles. The OFV thus also states that “the target for 2025 has not been achieved” but also that “no other country comes close to such a high proportion of electric cars.”

“The figures and the increase in the share show that it may be difficult to reach the final percentages to achieve the 2025 target,” says OFV Director Øyvind Solberg Thorsen. It is a clear message to the government that it is necessary to maintain incentives that offer benefits for the purchase of electric cars – if the government wants to achieve its target. Benefits include VAT exemption for electric cars, while taxes on new combustion cars will be higher from 1 April 2025.

These incentives are already having an effect: in 2023, petrol plug-in hybrids were the second-strongest drive type after BEVs (82.4 per cent) with a market share of 7.9 per cent. In 2024, PHEV sales fell to just 2.7 per cent of the market, which still puts them in third place. Full petrol hybrids are still ahead of PHEVs with 5.3% (2023: 6.0%). Plug-in hybrids with diesel engines (only 17 new registrations), as well as pure diesel (2.3%) and petrol (0.8%) cars also only play a subordinate role. That also applies to fuel cell vehicles, even though the OFV has recorded growth of 350 per cent here. However, new FCEV registrations have only risen from two vehicles in 2023 to nine units.

In December, the market shares were slightly different, with 11,668 EVs out of a total of 13,652 new registrations representing the aforementioned 85.5 per cent share. In addition, there were 993 full hybrids (7.3 per cent market share) and 593 plug-in hybrids – the latter were almost 70 per cent down on the previous year in December and still have a 4.3 per cent market share. 327 new diesel cars (2.4 per cent) and 71 new petrol cars (0.5 per cent) were added.

The high electric car market shares are also reflected in the ranking of the most popular models. The Tesla Model Y is clearly in the lead as in previous years. The electric SUV accounted for 16,858 new registrations, which alone corresponds to a share of 13.1 per cent – more than all non-electric cars combined. Nevertheless, it must be mentioned that the Model Y lost some ground compared to 2023 (23,088 new registrations and 18.2 per cent market share) last year.

On the other hand, the Model 3 with the Highland facelift was once again more in demand. With 7,264 new registrations and a 5.6 per cent market share, Tesla’s small electric saloon ranks second in the Norwegian model ranking. However, it was extremely close, as the IFV lists three models with a 5.6 per cent market share: the new Volvo EX30 is only just behind with 7,229 new registrations and is celebrating a successful debut in Norway. The VW ID.4 only missed out on the podium by seven vehicles, with 7,222 new registrations, the German electric SUV in fourth place, followed by the Toyota bZ4X (6,007), Skoda Enyaq (4,610), Nissan Ariya (3,772) and VW ID.3 (3,634), which are all purely electrically powered models. The Toyota Yaris is the only hybrid model to make the top ten with 3,523 new registrations, just ahead of the Audi Q4 e-tron (3,449). That also means that three MEB SUVs from the Volkswagen Group are in the top ten. If one adds the registrations of the ID.4, Enyaq and Q4 e-tron, demand is almost as high as for the Model Y at 15,281 units.

With its wider range of models, the VW Group can even overtake Tesla with 27,557 new registrations – but only from a Group perspective. In the brand ranking, Tesla is ahead with 24,259 sales in Norway, ahead of the VW brand with 14,000 new registrations. VW was able to slightly increase its result (2023: 13,704), while Tesla was slightly below the 2023 figure of 25,408 sales. Toyota is third in the brand ranking with 13,678 sales, but just under half of these were accounted for by the electric bZ4X.

Let’s take a quick look at the other German brands: BMW lands in 5th place with 6,952 sales, Audi in 8th place with 5,501 units. Mercedes just missed out on the top ten in eleventh place with 4,021 new cars; Porsche almost tripled its 2023 result and landed in 18th place with 1,523 new registrations. Chinese manufacturers are slowly gaining relevance in Norway: MG, BYD and Xpeng all surpassed their 2023 results and, in the case of MG, even broke into the top ten for the first time.

ofv.no, ofv.no, ofv.no (all in Norwegian)