Norway January 2023: Market crashes -76.6% to lowest in 61 years due to price increases
Mazda sales are up 78.4% in a devastated market.
The price increase on all new cars registered from January 1, 2023 has wrecked havoc on the Norwegian car market. Among the changes are the introduction of a weight fee for all vehicles, the 25% VAT now valid for any EV priced above 500,000 NOK and the removal of the 20% discount for company EVs. As a result we had two exceptionally high months in November and December where all manufacturers registered the vehicles they received as soon as shipments arrived, sometimes before having a buyer.
And therefore January sales crash from 39,497 in December to just 1,860 this month , a -95.3% fall, and from 7,957 in January 2022, a -76.6% year-on-year drop. This is the lowest January figure since 1962 when the VW Beetle topped the charts. Having been hit particularly hard by the new price increases, BEV (-81.4%) account for “only” 66.5% of the market for the month vs. 83.7% a year ago in January 2022. HEV are down -29.1% to 263 and 14.1% share vs. 4.7% last year, PHEV drop -66.2% to 182 and 9.8% share vs. 6.8%, petrol holds 1.9% vs. 2.2^ in January 2022 and diesel is at 7.6% vs. 2.7%.
The brands ranking is shaken good with the Top 5 all gaining significant share. Volkswagen (-29.7%) is up to 24.9% of the market, Toyota (-35.9%) is up to 19.8% and Volvo (-39%) up to 11%. We don’t have a record of Volkswagen and Toyota hitting such high shares before. Skoda (-63.9%) also resists somewhat and soars to 8.9% share vs. 5.7% over the Full Year 2022. Mazda (+78.4%) completely ignores the storm and shoots up 16 spots on December to #5. The rest of the Top 10 falls even faster than the market bar Nissan (-74.5%), with Hyundai (-95.2%) and Mercedes (-92.8%) imploding.
Model-wise, the VW ID.4 (-45.5%) takes the lead with 11.4% share ahead of the Skoda Enyaq (-67.4%). The Toyota Yaris Cross (+125.5%) more than doubles its sales year-on-year to land in third place above an equally healthy Mazda MX-30 (+82.1%). The VW ID.3 (-12%) is up 14 spots on last month to #5 and the Toyota bZ4X sports its first Top 10 finish at #6. The Volvo XC60 (+273.3%) and VW Caravelle (+38.3%) also defy the gloomy context with splendid year-on-year rises in the remainder of the Top 10.
Previous post: Norway 2022: Tesla Model Y breaks VW Beetle’s 53 year-old record, BEVs hold 79.3% share
One year ago: Norway January 2022: BEVs hit record 83.7% share, 19 in Top 20 are BEVs, Hongqi E-HS9 in Top 20
Full January 2023 Top 37 all brands and Top 118 all models below.
