Tesla Model Y Shatters 50-Year Old Volkswagen Beetle Record in Norway

Norway intends to be more than a decade ahead of Europe's plans regarding electric cars. The market penetration rates of the Tesla Model Y are so good that it has just broken a record of more than 50 years ago.

When Tesla introduced the Model Y to society, few could have imagined the success that the compact family SUV would achieve. It seemed impossible to surpass the sales figures of the Tesla Model 3, but reality shows that the popularity of the latest model of the house does not actually stop growing. Positioned as one of the best-selling models in the world, in Norway the Model Y can boast of having broken a record that the Volkswagen Beetle had held since 1969: a milestone that says a lot in favor of Tesla and the electrification strategy of Tesla Norway.

It is not at all strange to refer to the Nordic country as one of the most advanced in terms of electrification in the whole world. Europe aims to eradicate combustion car (ICE, Internal Combustion Engine) sales by 2035, but Norway wants to bring that date forward by a decade. The intention of the Government is that from next 2025 on, only electric cars will be offered in car dealerships and everything indicates that they are actually going to achieve it. Month after month sales reach new records: by 2021 the market share of battery-powered vehicles already reached 64.5%, an outstanding figure that no other country in the world is capable of matching even as of today.…

But 2022 will be even better and the first estimates suggest that the year will end with figures close to 80% EV market share,and 90% if plug-in hybrid models are added. Month after month the Tesla Model Y is at the top of the best-selling models: only in September the American model managed to place 3,063 units among Norwegian drivers. If we look at the accumulated annual figures we see that registrations up to November 2022 have been 16,709 units; an absolute sales record since the Volkswagen Beetle achieved it at the end of the 1960s.

Things have indeed changed a lot during these last 53 years: Norway had never seen such a high popularity in a single car. So robust has been the market performance of the Model Y that it has a whole month left over to surpass the 1969 mark of the Beetle. Some estimates suggest that Tesla could deliver close to 18,000 units by the end of 2022. Curiously, Volkswagen has been on the verge of breaking its own record thanks to the Volkswagen ID.4 model: sales of the German electric SUV have also reached excellent records and total sales are estimated at 11,000 units at the end of this year, 2022.

But there is still a long way to go in Europe: on the other hand, Spain is at the opposite end of the electric car market. The sales figures are progressing adequately, although not at the rate expected by the Spanish Government: at the end of November, the annual quota barely represented a 3.67%, although we can say that, just like in Norway, Model Y is the electric vehicle that is reaping the most sales. Government aid and the “MOVES” programs in Spain are supporting the sales, although some problems with salary payments and the fact that customers have to advance money for the EV purchase are still issues for many drivers.

Source: cleantechnica

All images courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.