The entire Norwegian new car market is down almost 77 percent year-on-year.
February 8, 2023 at 8:12 a.m. ET
January 2023 was a very unusual month in Norway, as the car market recorded the lowest number of new car registrations since 1962 (61 years ago). In total, just 1,860 new cars were registered last month (down 77% year-on-year). That’s a massive drop (95 percent) from the previous month (39,497 in December).
The Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) explains that several things caused this result. The first was the war and pandemic (supply constraints), which led to lower sales in early 2022 and higher sales in late 2022 (specifically November and December).
Next up is VAT for new electric cars priced above NOK 500,000 ($48,248) from January 1, as well as a new weight tax for all passenger cars. In other words, customers rushed to buy cars at the end of 2022, but at the beginning of 2023 there weren’t too many customers. OFV says it is too early to say whether the sales slump will extend beyond the spring.
Sales of plug-in electric cars were significantly affected by the above, and in January the number of new registrations amounted to 1,419 (down 80 percent year-on-year). That’s still about 76.3 percent of the total market.
Statistics of the month (only passenger cars):
- BEV: 1,237 (81% less, with a market share of 66.5%)
- PHEV: 182 (down 66%, with a market share of 9.8%)
- Total: 1,419 (80% less, 76.3% market share)
For reference, in 12 months of 2022, more than 153,000 new plug-in electric cars were registered in Norway.
Registration of connected cars up to the date of the year:
- BEV: 138,292 (21.6% more, with a market share of 79.3%)
- PHEV: 14,857 (down 61%, with a market share of 8.5%)
- Total: 153,144 (0.8% more, with a market share of 87.8%)
Gasoline, diesel and non-rechargeable hybrids accounted for 23.7% in January, the highest value in more than two years (1.9% gasoline, 7.6% diesel, 14.2% hybrids).
Regarding the main models, we can see the Volkswagen ID.4 as number 1 with 212 units and a share of 11.4 percent. Also strong was the Toyota Yaris (160), which is a conventional hybrid, followed by the all-electric Skoda Enyaq iV (127).
A big surprise for us is the Mazda MX-30 as number 4 (122), slightly ahead of the Volkswagen ID.3 (110). This month is too unusual to draw any significant conclusions.
There are no Tesla cars listed, which means volume deliveries ended in December. But interestingly, we can see 31 Volkswagen ID. Buzz (#17).
