Tesla Mania Means Over Half of Norway Car Sales Are Now Electric
Tesla Mania Means Over Half of Norway Car Sales Are Now Electric
(Bloomberg) -- Electric vehicles accounted for more than half of Norway’s car sales in March, making history in the country following record registrations of Tesla Inc.’s Model 3.
Per inhabitant, Norway already boasts more electric cars than any other place on Earth thanks to generous incentives. Last month, new registrations of electric vehicles climbed to 58 percent of the total, according to figures released on Monday by the Norwegian Road Federation.
With 5,315 new cars registered, Tesla’s Model 3 accounted for 29 percent of the new sales. That beat the previous record of 2,172 (held by the Nissan Leaf) by a wide margin, as reported by Bloomberg last week.
Teslas are flowing into Norway, the California-based company’s fourth-biggest market worldwide, as it steps up deliveries of the Model 3, a car designed to be more affordable than previous models. The roll-out will be a test for Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk as he tries to make the company profitable and turn the page on a bumpy 2018.
Battery electric cars’ share of new registration also hit a record in the first quarter as a whole, at 48 percent, according to the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association. The group expects that proportion to remain around 50 percent for 2019 as a whole, it said in a separate statement.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mikael Holter in Oslo at mholter2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Tasneem Hanfi Brögger
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