Tesla Model Y beats best-selling car record in Norway

Tesla Model Y has beat the best-selling car record for a single year in Norway – taking it from the VW Beetle in 1969.

Norway has been the leading market for electric vehicles in terms 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 December numbers released today being no exception and showing us the whole year.

64.5% of all cars sold in Norway in 2021 were all-electric.

In 2022, it looks like the country is going to close the year at closer to 80% and 90% if you include plug-in hybrids.

A big part of this year’s growth is due to Tesla’s Model Y, which is having an incredible year in Norway.

The electric SUV has now even beat the record for the most car sold in a year in the country. It was held by the VW Beetle in 1969, with 16,709 units delivered.

Today, the Model Y has beat that record with 16,748 units registered year-to-date, according to several online trackers.

With another week left in the quarter and based on the current average number of deliveries per day, it looks like Tesla could deliver closer to 18,000 Model Ys in Norway in 2022.

While Volkswagen lost the crown to Tesla, the automaker also deserves credit for the record EV market share that Norway is going to achieve in 2022.

The VW ID.4 is second only to the Model Y in the country this year, with over 11,000 deliveries.

The third-best seller is the Škoda Enyaq iV, with over 7,000 deliveries. Škoda is also a Volkswagen brand.

Electrek’s Take

Norway is awesome. I know it’s a small, rich country; therefore, it is not representative of other markets – but it also kind of is.

They certainly have advantages that make them able to adopt EVs faster, but as the cost of EVs comes down over time, these advantages will be less significant, and other markets will be able to go the same way as Norway.

I think Norway will be as close to 100% EV sales as it gets in 2024, and it is going to be clearer for the rest of the world that buying anything other than an all-electric vehicle at that point would be a terrible idea.