October 14, 2018
By Zachary Shahan
Exponential electric vehicle adoption (click here) has been at play in Norway for several years. I remember attending AVERE’s EVS27 in Barcelona back in late 2013 and the hottest news of previous months had been Norway achieving stunning EV market share milestones. That September and October, plug-in vehicles had risen to 7% and 8% market share! (As you’ll see in a few minutes, 7% and 8% market share were figures no other country would touch for years.) Electric cars had been the top selling cars in the country two months in a row — the Tesla Model S in September and the Nissan LEAF in October....
...In November, plug-in vehicle (PEV) market share rose to a stunning 12%.
In subsequent months, the Model S and LEAF continued to find themselves at the top of the sales chart, and the Tesla Model S even outsold all Ford vehicles in the country. In March 2014, Model S registrations were more than double the #2 Golf’s registrations.
In August and September 2014, PEV market share rose to 14.5% and 14.3%. In 2015, more electric cars started competing for the top selling car title, with the VW e-Golf climbing up the ranks, for example. By July and August 2015, PEV sales were so high that they took a stunning 23% and then 26% of car sales in the country. The available models kept broadening.
Sales kept climbing, and by April 2016, plug-ins + hybrids had risen to 60% of the country’s car sales. A month later, despite its small population, Norway became the 4th country to achieve 100,000 total electric car sales. I met a couple of Norwegians in California right before the Model 3 unveiling as we and hundreds of others waited in line in Santa Monica to reserve Model 3s. In the first half of the year, 24% of new cars had plugs, 13% pure electric cars and 11% plug-in hybrids....
