Car Sales – Buy the expensive electric cars

Compared to last year, new car sales have plummeted. At the end of August, there were 88,116 new cars registered in Norway, up from nearly 111,000 in the same period last year. The reason for the decline is not certain that Norwegians don’t want a new car. The waiting lists for new electric cars are long.

The aftermath of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine mean that automakers do not have the necessary parts and therefore have problems delivering the cars Norwegians want.

Pandemic and war

Director Øyvind Solberg Thorsen of the Road Traffic Information Council (OFV), it is clear that this is one of the reasons why sales have fallen so dramatically this year:

– Last year gave us a new record with over 172,000 new cars. Few believe we will get close to this this year. Pandemics and wars still pose major challenges for the automotive industry. Many dealerships don’t get the number of new cars they could have delivered to waiting list customers, says Thorsen.

Expensive cars at the top

The fact that Norwegian shoppers mostly only want electric cars these days is no big surprise. We have selected the 15 best-selling cars so far this year. Aside from the Toyota RAV4 in 11th place, the list contains only electric cars.

At the top is the Tesla Model Y, followed by the Volkswagen ID. 4 GTX, Skoda Enyaq and BMW iX. The slightly special thing is that all of these have a starting price of over NOK 500,000. So they have most of the other 15 cars on the list.

“Nobody” wants the cheap ones

The Audi Q4 e-tron, which has a starting price of NOK 421,000, may seem reasonable on paper. This version with the smallest battery, a range of 330 kilometers and rear-wheel drive, however, hardly anyone buys it. According to the retailers we spoke to, most of the Q4 e-tron’s they sell cost over NOK 600,000.

This is also the case with the Polestar 2. It has a starting price of NOK 375,000, but most cars are sold with all-wheel drive and a large battery that offers a range of 470 kilometers. So this car quickly gets to nearly NOK 500,000 before it’s ready for the road.

Large selection of cheap ones

Although the selection of electric cars in the price range of around NOK 300,000 is large, many with short delivery times, this is not what these Norwegian buyers mainly want. We have to go all the way down to the Hyundai Kona Electric in 13th place and the Nissan Leaf in 14th before we find the cheap electric cars on the list.

What will happen to auto sales for the rest of the year is uncertain. Will the decline in auto sales continue or increase into the new year? Will rising interest rates and sharply rising electricity and food prices cause people to choose cheaper electric cars? Or do we still want to buy the expensive cars?

VAT rush on expensive electric cars?

Major car manufacturers are well aware that Norwegian authorities will introduce VAT on electric cars above NOK 500,000 starting on New Year’s Eve.

Solberg Thorsen in OFV believes there may be some surprises:

– Norway may be rewarded with more delivery of electric cars towards the end of the year, perhaps especially the more expensive cars. We won’t have the answer yet, says the OFV chief.