Norway: 1956-2023 Historical Data available

The Ford Cortina was #2 in Norway in 1963 and from 1965 to 1969

The direct links to 40 Norway Historical Data articles are below

Detailed Historical Data for Norway covering the past 65 years is now available. There is now a Top 10 models ranking for each and every year from 1956 to 1978, decade rankings for the eighties and nineties, a Top 50 models ranking for 1993, 94 and 96, a Top 10 for 1998, Top 15 for 1999 and from 2000 onwards there is at least a Top 20 for each year.

The 100,000th Norwegian VW Beetle delivered to its owner

The VW Beetle dominates the Norwegian models ranking during the fifties and the sixties, in pole position for 13 of the 15 years from 1956 to 1970 and peaking at 22.4% share in 1960. It is the best-selling model of all times in Norway with over 140,000 units sold in the country alone.

The Pobeda ranked #2 in Norway in 1956 (4wd version featured aka GAZ M-71)

The Volvo PV444/544 managed to interrupt this domination in 1957 and 1958, a feat that it didn’t achieve in its native Sweden as far as I know. Notice also the Pobeda (aka GAZ M-20) holding 11.7% of the market in 1956… A few Ford models had to do with 2nd place over the period: the Anglia peaked at 11.7% share in 1960 while the Cortina held that position 6 times from 1963 to 1969, peaking at 12% in 1963.

The Datsun Sunny was #8 in Norway in 1970

In 1970 the Japanese land and the Datsun Sunny is the first nippon model to rank within the year-end Norwegian Top 10 at #8. This will be improved to #6 in 1971 by the Mazda 1500, to #5 in 1973 by the Mazda 818 and to #2 in 1975 by the Toyota Corolla while the Mazda 929 reaches 5% of the market in 1976…

The Mazda 1500 was #6 in Norway in 1971

In 1971 the Volvo 140 Series puts an end to the Beetle’s leadership and after 4 years on top passes the relay to the Volvo 240 Series in 1975. The VW Golf dominates the eighties as well as the nineties – if you have detailed models ranking from 1979 to 1992 please make sure to get in touch by commenting on this post.

VW Golf

Up until 2017, either a Volkswagen or a Toyota held the pole position in Norway: the Golf did so 13 times (1998-2000 and 2008–2017), the Passat was #1 three times in 2001 and 2006-2007, as was the Corolla in 2002-2003 and 2005 while the Avensis ranked first in 2004. Symbolising the race towards no emissions the country has started engaging in the 2010s, the Nissan Leaf took the first spot in 2018, followed by the Tesla Model 3 in 2019 and 2021, the Audi e-Tron in 2020 and the Tesla Model Y in 2022 and 2023, hitting a record 18.2% share that year.

Norway Historical Data:

Norway 1956: VW Beetle and Pobeda dominate

Norway 1957-1958: Volvo 444/544 takes the lead