Norway May 2023: Tesla Model Y ultra dominant again, VW ID.Buzz in Top 10

First Top 10 finish for the VW ID.Buzz in Norway.

New car sales in Norway return to positive in May at +15.6% year-on-year to 13,342 registrations. However a poor start of the year has the year-to-date tally down -4.9% to 50,983. BEV sales rise 27.6% to 10,773 and 80.4% share vs. 73.2% a year ago in May 2022 and are stable year-on-year to 42,475 and 83.3% share year-to-date vs. 79.2% over the first 5 months of 2022. HEVs bounce back up 29% to 1,042, and are up 22.3% to 3,301 YTD while PHEVs sink -20.6% in May to 1,092 and drop -29% YTD to 3,335. Petrol cars hold 1.2% share vs. 4.2% a year ago and diesel is at 2.1% share vs. 3.7% in May 2022.

In the brands ranking, Tesla (+1187.8%) surges to 22.1% share vs. 26.3% year-to-date. It is followed by Toyota (+64.4%) at 12.9% of the market and Volkswagen (+20.9%) at 11.9%, making sure the entire podium outpaces the market. It’s a different story for BMW (-22.1%) in a rut yet resisting better than year-to-date (-43.8%). Nissan (+93.1%) and Skoda (+45.1%) also post solid results in the remainder of the Top 10 just as Hyundai (-17%) and Ford (-5.5%) struggle and Audi (+7.3%) and Volvo (+0.5%) are shy. It’s worth noting that the Chinese wave has receded somewhat in Norway: MG is down -19.8%, BYD down -61.5%) and NIO off -48.1%. JAC, Seres and Voyah all sell less than 10 units while Hongqi, Xpeng and Ora are at zero sales.

Model-wise, the Tesla Model Y (+1101.3%) suffocates the market again at 20.2% share and 24.2% year-to-date (+242.7%). The VW ID.4 (-19.3%) stays in 2nd place but is outsold almost 4 to 1 by the Model Y. The BMW ix1 is up five spots on April to #3, distancing the Toyota RAV4 (+100.7%) and Volvo XC40 (+17.7%). The rest of the Top 10 is entirely composed of BEVs: the Skoda Enyaq is up 39.2%, the Audi Q4 e-Tron up 30.8%, the Ford Mustang Mach-E up 14.5% but the Hyundai Ioniq 5 drops -26.6% to #10. Finally the VW ID.Buzz breaks into the Norwegian Top 10 for the very first time at #9.

Previous month: Norway April 2023: Model Y #1, Nissan Ariya in Top 10, sales off -7.7%

One year ago: Norway May 2022: BMW (+72.3%) defies market down -18%, VW ID.4 #1

Full May 2023 Top 45 All brands and Top 195 All models below.