The Norway auto market in January 2022 saw more EV sales and fewer gas car, diesel car, and hybrid EV sales yet again, OFV reported in its recent analysis of Norwegian January car sales. CleanTechnica also published a report and original charts on these results.
In total, there were 7,957 new passenger cars registered in Norway. Although this is 2,344 fewer than January 2021, the lowest registration total for January was back in 2009. Also keep in mind the first quarter of the year is usually the weakest in terms of sales.
What’s most notable is that out of the 7,957 new passenger car sales, 6,660 of those were zero-emissions vehicles. This marked a 21.9% increase compared with January 2021. There were a total of 1,495 new vans, with 371 being new zero-emission vans in both Classes 1 and 2.
🇳🇴 Plug-in hybrid share plummeted from 27.9% in 1/21 to only 6.8% in 1/22 after 🇳🇴 increased PHEV taxes in Jan. to better reflect PHEV emissions
PHEV share could recover some later in the year but their days are numbered with market quickly approaching 100% full #EVs pic.twitter.com/LUCONv8as9
— Not_an_Analyst🇺🇦 (@facts_tesla) February 1, 2022
In total, there were only 175 gas car sales in Norway in January, 212 diesel engine car sales, 910 hybrid sales, and 6,660 battery-electric vehicle sales. OFV (Road Traffic Information Council) reported that in January, 19 of the top 20 new car sales were electric. The article also touched upon the aforementioned decrease of total sales in January 2022 as compared with January 2021, noting that electric cars were the exception in this case.
The article also noted that of all new passenger cars so far in 2022, 6.8% are rechargeable hybrids. The year is still young and that number could grow, but it may not grow by much if BEVs continue to expand.
Øyvind Solberg Thorsen of OFV pointed out that the only vehicle in the top 20 that isn’t an electric car is the Toyota RAV4. OFV also noted that new car registrations are continuing to reflect how Norway is different from the rest of the world in the context of electric cars. Although more countries are having an increase in EV sales, only Norway can point to such a brand and model distribution in the top 20 in a month. Thorsen added that the six best-selling vehicles didn’t exist in Norway this time last year.
This shows that Norwegian new car buyers are buying the very latest in a similar fashion as many do with mobile phones. He added that the way we buy a new car is about to change radically thanks to being able to order and shop online before a new car is picked up at a dealership. Thorsen noted that many people don’t test drive the new car as they used to.