 |
| A Volkswagen e-Golf on the Norwegian roads. Photo credit: Norsk Elbilforening. |
By Anders Lorenzen
Europe’s largest market for electrical cars, Norway, has again recorded significant new growth trends that confirms the market in Norway is well ahead of that in any European country.
Almost four time as many electrical cars have been registered since the same time last year. Furthermore, competition on the market is hotting up. Tesla, who for long time have been the absolutely leader on the market, now face stiff competition from Volkswagen (VW) and Nissan.
It’s estimated that 20,000 electric vehicles could be sold this year in Norway, as of yet in 2014 12,449 have so far been registered and they represent 13% of the total Norwegian car market for 2014, of which was at 95,519 in August. To give a view of the significant growth of electric vehicles this year, last year the total number of electric cars registered was 3,206.
While Tesla are still leading the Norwegian market with their Tesla S model (which so far this year account for 3,431 registered vehicles) Volkswagen comes from behind with two models: the Volkswagen Up and the Volkswagen e-Golf, which subsequently account for 2,130 and 925 registrations. As Volkswagen has two popular models on the market and Tesla just one, speculation is mounting that Tesla could soon be overtaken. Possibly as soon as the end of the year if the predictions of 20,000 new registrations will be realised. The Volkswagen Up represents the most explosive growth on the market this year. In total it accounts for 2,700 registrations, but 2,130 of them have been this year.
But it’s not only Volkswagen and Tesla in the play, Nissan are also featuring strongly in the mix. It’s Nissan’s Leaf which comes in at second place just behind the Tesla Model S and accounts for 3,378 new registrations this year.
While the rest of Europe are struggling to inspire people to embrace electric vehicles, it is almost slightly ironic that Europe’s biggest oil producer is also by far the largest market for electric cars, and growing. Despite it’s tiny population of around five million people, they are well ahead of Europe’s economic superpowers United Kingdom, Germany and France.
Sub edited by Charlotte Paton
Related news:
Categories: car sales, electric cars, Norway, oil state., Tesla, Volkswagen
A greener life, a greener world 