Norway sets record month for EV sales – 97.2 per cent – as Tesla slips to fourth in electric brands

Long one of the world’s leaders for electric vehicle (EV) adoption, Norway has once again set a new adoption record, with EVs accounting for 97.2 per cent of all new passenger vehicles registered and delivered in July.

According to the Opplysningsrådet for veitrafikken (OFV), Norway’s Road Traffic Information Council, registrations of new vehicles in Norway for July were up nearly 50 per cent year-over-year, totalling 9,563.

Of these 9,563 new passenger vehicles entering Norway’s roads last month, 9,291 were electric – and not just “electrified”, but full battery EVs.

The OFV always breaks down its numbers to specific drive types, showing in July that there were only 93 plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs) registered and delivered, 60 hybrids, 8 diesel PHEVs, 25 petrol internal combustion engine (ICE), and 86 diesel ICE vehicles.

July is, traditionally, according to OFV, a quiet month in car dealerships in Norway, coming as it does in the midst of the Northern Hemisphere’s Summer and holiday period.

And Øyvind Solberg Thorsen, OFV director, is quick to remind that many of the new passenger cars registered in July were ordered “quite some time ago” and only registered and delivered in July because “there is still a waiting period for many car models.”

Nevertheless, this new monthly record for EV adoption follows hot on the heels of two out of three months which saw EVs account for 97 per cent of all new vehicles registered and delivered (April and June).

July’s record month for EV adoption also brought the total number of new EVs now on Norway’s roads to new heights, increasing by 25.6 compared to the same period last year, and reaching a 94 per cent market share for the first seven months of the year, compared to a market share of only 85 per cent in 2024.

Unsurprisingly, then, the top 20 cars sold in July were all electric cars, led by the newly revamped Tesla Model Y, which saw 715 new models drive out of the lots during the month.

However, while Tesla was once the clear favourite in Norway, the American carmaker isn’t having it all their own way anymore. The Model Y was the only Tesla car in the top 10, according to OFV, and was only the fourth leading car brand for the whole month – with only 123 other non-Model Y cars sold in July.

European carmaker Volkswagen took top spot as Norway’s number one best-selling car brand in July, with a total of 1,116, followed by Volvo and Skoda, with MG filling out the top 5 – and while these numbers don’t specify drive type, only 272 cars sold in Norway during July were not an EV.