Norway May 2015: PHEV tax cut pushes Outlander up to #2

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

* See the Top 35 All-brands and Top 100 models by clicking on the title *

The Norwegian new car market continues to evolve at slightly lower levels than a year ago: down 2% in May to 12.036 registrations and down 1% year-to-date to 60.185 units. Once neck to neck in Norway, Volkswagen and Toyota behave in diametrically opposite ways in 2015: the German carmaker is up 21% in May to 17.2% share and up 36% year-to-date to 18.2% whereas the Japanese manufacturer is down 20% this month to 9.6% and at -3% so far this year at 11.2% share. Volvo is up 10% to #3, Ford up 19% to #4, Mercedes up 22% to #6, Mitsubishi up 31% to #13 and Subaru more than doubling its sales year-on-year to #15. The models ranking is more than ever influenced by tax breaks towards eco-friendly vehicles, with a recent tax cut for plug-in hybrids adding another category that will see a sales boost in the coming months.

The new Volvo XC90 ranks higher in Norway than in Sweden this month.

The living proof is the VW Golf: out of the 1.323 sales allowing it a gargantuan 11% market share in May, 606 (46%) are the electric e-Golf and 221 (17%) are the plug-in hybrid. The Mitsubishi Outlander leaps up to 2nd place overall thanks to its PHEV variant representing 86% of its Norwegian sales and the all-electric Tesla Model S is back up 5 spots to #5 with 346 deliveries and 2.9% share, remaining #2 year-to-date at 2.108 units and 3.5%. Further down, notice the Audi A3 spending a 2nd consecutive month at #7 thanks to its plug-in hybrid variant (58% of sales), the Suzuki Vitara up 44 spots to #22, the new generation Volvo XC90 shooting up to #25 (better than at home in Sweden) and the Mazda CX-3 landing at #73 for its first month of sales in Norway.

Previous month: Norway April 2015: VW Golf stuck at all-time high levels

One year ago: Norway May 2014: VW Up up to best-ever #2 spot

Full May 2015 Top 35 All-brands and Top 100 models below.