EVs reach 58% of Norway's car sales

Electric cars are seen at Tesla charging station in Gulsvik, Norway March 17, 2019.
REUTERS/Terje Solsvik

From Reuters:

Almost 60 percent of all new cars sold in Norway in March were fully electric, the Norwegian Road Federation (NRF) said on Monday, a global record as the country seeks to end fossil-fueled vehicles sales by 2025.

Exempting battery engines from taxes imposed on diesel and petrol cars has upended Norway’s auto market, elevating brands like Tesla and Nissan, with its Leaf model, while hurting sales of Toyota, Daimler and others.

In 2018, Norway’s fully electric car sales rose to a record 31.2 percent market share from 20.8 percent in 2017, far ahead of any other nation, and buyers had to wait as producers struggled to keep up with demand.

The surge of electric cars to a 58.4 percent market share in March came as Tesla ramped up delivery of its mid-sized Model 3, which retails from 442,000 crowns ($51,400), while Audi began deliveries of its 652,000-crowns e-tron sports utility vehicle.

[Read more here]

In 2012, plug-ins (that is, pure EVs and PHEVs) made up just 3% of total Norwegian car sales.  It's true that the jump in the percentage of EV/PHEV sales had been accelerated by incentives.  But the incentives haven't changed over the last few years.  So why has the percentage of EVs continued to rise in a classic S-curve?  In a word: awareness.  EVs are no longer strange and odd in Norway.  They're the norm.  Your friend has one, your mother buys one, you see them on the street.  As EV prices fall, the market penetration of EVs everywhere will follow the classic technology adoption S-curve.  3% to 60% in six years?  Yeah.  It's going to happen everywhere.