$47.7 Million — The Cash Norwegians Have Put Down For Electric Car Reservations

November 2nd, 2018 by Zachary Shahan

There’s no secret about it in the electric car world — Norway is the world’s premier country for viewing the electric revolution. As I wrote recently, 60% of new car sales in the country are now plug-in car sales. The country has risen up the tech adoption S-curve and has a far higher number of EV drivers per capita than any other country on earth.

Norwegians are also eagerly waiting for all the hot new electric models, to the tune of 400 million Norwegian kroner (or $47.7 million).

Well, I presume that is a low estimate. I was told by someone at the Norwegian EV association (Norsk elbilforening) that no one outside of Tesla really knows how many Norwegian Model 3 reservations are sitting behind tesla.com/teslaaccount. The findings reported in a Norwegian paper put the Model 3 as second in line on the reservation list, behind the Audi e-tron quattro, and I have to say that’s hard to believe.

Other popular electric models Norwegians have put down money to reserve include the Porsche Taycan (formerly called the Mission E), which is a high-end car in the range of the Model S; the Kia Niro Electric, one of the first affordable electric CUVs on the market; the Mercedes-Benz EQC, a fully electric SUV entry from the well known German brand; the Jaguar I-PACE, a CUV/SUV that is helping to lead Jaguar into an electric future even thought it doesn’t quite stack up to the similarly priced Model X in several regards; and the BMW iX3, which is BMW’s coming attempt to finally get back into the electric game.

“Over 30,000 Norwegian kroner are in line to buy one of the new electric cars that are on the way to the market, as many buyers have paid to stand there,” a Google translation of the NRK article about the news states. [Update: That translation has been modified for accuracy. It initially said “Over 30,000 Norwegians are in line” but that was apparently an unfortunate auto translation.]

Again, Tesla’s numbers are an estimate rather than official figures from the automaker, and I have a hard time believing they aren’t much higher.

Learn more about Norway’s EV adoption background if you haven’t done so before.

Top image via Elbilfestival i Geiranger and Norsk Elbilforening (some rights reserved — CC BY), second image via NRK











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