Tesla sold more cars in Norway than Ford

The Tesla Model S has topped the monthly sales charts in Norway before, but this time, it broke a national sales record that another brand held for nearly 30 years.

The Tesla Model S, which is in high demand in Norway for many reasons, sold 1,493 units in March 2014. Of course, to Americans, this figure may seem insignificant, but let’s remember that Norway’s population is about 5 million, while the United States’ population is 63 times larger – about 314 million. March sales of the Tesla Model S luxury electric car effectively broke the 1986 monthly sales record set by the Ford Sierra car, with 1,454 cars sold.

Please note that it has been less than a year since the Model S began shipping to the Norwegian market. However, there is still a queue of buyers to order the Model S. Tesla still cannot produce enough cars to meet demand for its products worldwide, and it simply distributes finished cars to customers in the United States, Norway and many other countries. But Norway is one of the main markets Tesla is trying to cater to. During a recent trip to Europe, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and CTO Straubel spent 1.5 hours in Oslo answering questions from current and potential Tesla owners.



Sales of electric cars in Norway rose to 12% of the total number of cars sold in a few months. Electric car Nissan Leaf also held the first place in the ranking of the championship of sales for several months. At the symposium on electric cars, which was held in Barcelona last November, an important part was the presentation of Francisco Carranza, corporate planning manager at Nissan Europe. In the presentation, Francisco made a confident assumption that most of the success of electric cars in the Norwegian market, it owes elementary awareness of consumers. Undoubtedly, lack of awareness today is one of the most serious barriers to the purchase of electric cars in most countries. This is doubly surprising, because electric cars are already the best option for many, if not most American car owners. However, only about 22% of Americans have heard of the Tesla Model S, and about 31% are familiar with the Nissan Leaf.



However, it is worth noting that Norway also offers a wide range of benefits and benefits for electric vehicle owners. Drivers of electric transport in this country can freely move along the lanes of public transport, free travel on toll roads, get free parking, travel on ferries without payment (and this is not at all for entertainment, and often a severe necessity for many regions of the country), do not pay purchase tax (which is very high in Norway), and much more. In other words, Norway has become a country with a record number of electric vehicles per capita.



Going back to the staggering sales figures for March, it’s worth mentioning some more interesting facts:

• The Tesla Model S was sold in March, more than twice as much as its closest rival, the Volkswagen Golf (1493 vs. 624).
• The all-electric Nissan LEAF took only the third position in March with 425 cars sold.
• Tesla sold more cars in Norway this year than Ford did in the same time frame (2056 vs. 1825), despite the company having only one model on the market.
• The Tesla Model S accounted for 10.8% of the total car market in Norway in March.
• In January-March, the Tesla Model S also topped the sales charts with nearly 500 more vehicles sold than the VW Golf and Nissan Leaf (2056, 1577 and 1,559 units, respectively).

Source: aenergy.ru