In May, the Norwegian passenger car market expanded by nearly 16 percent year-over-year to 13,342 units. The year-to-date number at the end of May amounted to 50,983 (down 5 percent year-over-year).

Plug-in electric car sales increase even faster, taking a larger and larger market share. According to the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV), 11,865 new passenger plug-in cars were registered last month (up 21 percent year-over-year), which is about 88.9 percent of the total volume (compared to 85.1 percent a year ago).

The most important thing for us is that all-electric car registrations in May increased by 28 percent year-over-year to 10,773, which represents 80.7 percent of the total volume, compared to 73.2 percent a year ago.

Plug-in hybrids were down once again, this time by 21 percent year-over-year (17th consecutive decrease). It's worth noting that together with non-rechargeable hybrids, electrified vehicles represent 96.7 percent of the total volume.

Stats for the month (only passenger cars):

  • BEVs: 10,773 (up 28%) and 80.7% market share
  • PHEVs: 1,092 (down 21%) and 8.2% market share
  • Total: 11,865 (up 21%) and 88.9% market share

New passenger plug-in car registrations in Norway – May 2023

So far this year, more than 45,000 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in Norway, which represents about 90 percent of the total car sales.

Plug-in car registrations year-to-date:

  • BEVs: 42,475 (up 0.1%) and 83.3% market share
  • PHEVs: 3,335 (down 29%) and 6.5% market share
  • Total: 45,810 (down 3%) and 89.9% market share

For reference, in 12 months of 2022, more than 153,000 new plug-in electric cars were registered in Norway (87.8 percent of the total volume).

Models

In terms of models, Norway seems to be in love with the Tesla Model Y, which with 2,691 new registrations last month, holds over 20 percent share. During the first five months of 2023, some 12,325 units were registered (24.2 percent of all new cars). No other model is even close to such a level.

For reference, the Volkswagen ID.4 is second best (738 units in May and 2,712 YTD). In May, a relatively strong result was posted by the all-new BMW iX1 with 594 units sold.

As usual in Norway, the top 20 list includes mostly crossover/SUV models.

Top 20 new passenger car registrations in Norway – 2023 YTD

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