Norway August 2020: Polestar 2 up to world best #4, Audi e-Tron and Mercedes EQC best-sellers, Electrified vehicles at 79% share, market back down (-10.5%)

The Polestar 2 surges to 4th place overall in Norway in August.

04/09 update: Now with Top 42 All-brands and Top 310 All-models.

Like almost every European market we have covered so far, Norway is back in negative territory in August at -10.5% to 10.802 registrations, leading to a year-to-date tally down -19.8% to 79.798 units. Electrified vehicle sales continue to improve, gaining 14.2% year-on-year to 8.535 and 79% share. This is the third highest ever market share reached by electrified vehicles in Norway and in any market in the world below last March (82.2%) and February (79.2%). Year-to-date, electrified sales are down just -6.1% to 62.394 and a whopping 78.2% share vs. 66.8% over the same period in 2019.

In the detail, BEV is up 21% in August to 5.704 and 52.8% share vs. 39% a year ago in August 2019 and down -11% year-to-date to 38.615 and 48.4% share vs. 43.6% over the same period in 2019. PHEV is up 56% to 1.881 and 17.4% share vs. 10% a year ago and up 48.5% YTD to 16.228 and 20.3% share vs. 11% in 2019 while HEV drops -38.9% to 950 and 8.8% share vs. 15.6% a year ago and down -37.9% YTD to 7.551 and 9.5% share vs. 12.2% in 2019. In contrast, petrol sales are off -47.9% to 1.201 and 11.1% share vs. 19.1% in August 2019 and 10.5% YTD vs. 17.3% while diesel sales sink -53.6% to 1.064 and 9.9% vs. 19% a year ago and 11.3% YTD vs. 15.8%. 48.4% of August sales are to companies (54.9% in August 2019) and 52.5% are 4WD (58.6% in 2019).

The Mercedes EQC repeats at a record 2nd place overall in Norway.

Brand-wise, Volkswagen (-51.3%) reclaims the top spot it holds YTD despite a ghastly fall, while Audi (+24.2%) remains in 2nd place and Mercedes (+242.3%) drops two spots on July to #3 but scores the largest gain in the Top 10 thanks to the EQC. Peugeot (+119.6%) leaps up 5 spots on July and its YTD ranking to break into the Norwegian Top 5 at #5 thanks to the new e-208 and e-2008 whereas Toyota (-39.5%) is in dire straits at #4. Nut the big news this month is the thunderous landing of Volvo’s new premium brand Polestar at #10 with 4.6% share, actually outselling Volvo (#11 and 4%) for the month. Porsche (+309.1%), Ford (+78.4%) and Hyundai (+28.5%) also shine in the remainder of the Top 20 but Tesla (-58.1%), Nissan (-52.1%), Suzuki (-38.6%), Skoda (-33.4%), Mitsubishi (-32%), Opel (-31.2%) and Volvo (-26.5%) all crash.

The Audi e-Tron is #1 in Norway so far this year.

In the models ranking, the Audi e-Tron (+69.7%) confirms it is the new favourite of Norwegian buyers both for the month and YTD (+121.4%) with the Mercedes EQC repeating at a surreal 2nd place overall with 5.5% share. The VW Golf (-54.6%) rallies back up 11 spots on July to #3 as the previous generation e-Golf is cleared before the arrival of the ID.3 which is bound to be a runaway success in this market. The big news in August is the arrival of the Polestar 2 at a stratospheric – and obviously world-record – 4th place overall with almost 500 units and 4.6% share. The Hyundai Kona (+76.5%) rounds out the Top 5, the Toyota RAV4 (-45.6%) is back up 20 ranks on last month to #6, the MG ZS edges down two to a still outstanding 7th place, the Peugeot 208 (+2400%) and 2008 (+439.2%) shoot up inside the Top 10 thanks to their new EV variants and the Porsche Taycan is up 9 to #13.

Previous month: Norway July 2020: Volumes up 6.5%, Mercedes signs first ever win, lifted by EQC (#2), MG ZS #5, Tesla crashes (-93.3%)

One year ago: Norway August 2019: Market down -16.4% despite Tesla (+325.8%) and Jaguar (+371.7%)

Full August 2020 Top 42 All-brands and Top 310 All-models below.