Norway Above 86% Plugin EV Share In February, Ioniq 5 Leads
Norway, the world’s leading auto market for electric vehicle adoption, saw plugins take 86.1% share in February, even with favorite Tesla models temporarily off-duty. Overall auto market volume was some 20% down from the seasonal average of the past two years. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 took the top spot.
February’s combined plugin result of 86.1% comprised 75.6% full battery electrics (BEVs) and 10.5% plugin hybrids (PHEVs). This continues the move towards the end goal of all-BEVs, and the gradual fade out of every other powertrain.
Due to the market dominance of Tesla’s models, and the current limitations of Tesla’s international shipping logistics, February is regularly Norway’s lowest month of the year for BEV volumes. So take the result of “only 86.1% share” in its proper context. Unless there’s some anomaly, plugins will be back above 90% next month.
BEVs alone grew from 56.3% in February 2021 to 75.6% last month – the long march is still continuing very strongly:
Norway’s Favourite BEVs
With Tesla off-duty, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 took the top spot in February, from the BMW iX in 2nd place, and the Audi Q4 e-tron in 3rd:
The top 3 were thus the exact same contenders as last month, just with a different order, mainly thanks to the Audi seeing a temporary delivery/logistics cut in February.
It’s impressive to see a relatively expensive vehicle like the BMW iX near the very top of the ranks, amongst other models that are just “averagely expensive”, which speaks to the iX’s perceived appeal to Norwegian buyers.
Meanwhile, following last month’s great debut result, the Hongqi EHS9 continues to prosper with 12% more sales, and climbing to #11 rank in February.
With Tesla absent for second month, let’s take a look at Norway’s trailing 3 month results, to smooth out the logistical ebbs and flows:
VW group and Tesla are still in very close proximity for the top spot in the manufacturer rankings. Let’s see what happens when Tesla starts cranking up its European factory in the coming months. Will VW be able to respond by increasing its own capacity?
Outlook
February is typically the lowest result of the year for Norway’s plugins, so the temporary dip to 86.1% is not a surprise, and will be back over 90% again in the coming months.
As I’ve said many times before, the journey from 90% to 100% will require more diversity of BEV models. In particular, affordable small and compact “economy” models, which are still the exclusive domain of combustion-only powertrains in Norway.
Until a greater diversity of models arrive, Norway won’t get all the way to 100%. Nevertheless this year will likely see every coming month above 90% share, and perhaps close to 95% in December.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Latest CleanTechnica.TV Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
