Norway has been a leader in electric car adoption for years now, but this year brought them to a new level as they keep beating new records with electric cars reaching a record 42% of Norway’s total new car sales in June.

The electric car market was also interesting last month with Volkswagen delivering a record 996 all-electric VW e-Golfs in the country.

While August electric car sales didn’t beat the June record, they came close with 40% market share.

Tesla still making its deliveries in batches in some countries didn’t help with only 194 vehicles in August (106 Model S sedans and 88 Model X SUVs). A bigger month from Tesla would have likely pushed the result to another record month for EV market share.

What really made the difference last month is the VW e-Golf, which has been very popular in Norway since its launch, but even more so with the 2017 version with an EPA rating of 125 miles of range on new 35.8 kWh battery pack.

In August, they delivered 996 units – bringing the year’s total to 3,582 units and making it the best selling electric vehicle in the country.

For comparison, VW has only delivered ~2,500 e-Golf in the US over the same period.

To be fair, the Golf was already a best-selling car in Norway before its electric revolution.

Now its electric version even surpassed the Nissan Leaf (2,800 units) and BMW i3 (3,400 units) with its record delivery last month.

Electrek’s Take

It’s absolutely fascinating to follow the electric vehicle market in Norway. Of course, they are a relatively small and rich country, but they are still so far ahead in electric vehicle adoption that it remains an interesting case study.

Norway is really close to the tipping point of electric cars where they become the majority of car sales in the country, which has the goal to reach 100% of new car sales being zero-emission vehicles starting in 2025.

With several new models coming to market in Norway next year, like Tesla Model 3, Audi e-tron quattro, and hopefully, the Opel Ampera E in higher volume next year, it looks like they will crush those ~40% of car sale records.

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