Electric cars grab 44% market share in Norway in January

Electric cars accounted for a 44.3% share of Norway's new car sales in January, rising year-on-year, but falling short of the 5% to 60% range the industry forecast for 2020, data from the Norwegian Road Federation showed on Monday.

In January 2019, electric cars made up 37.8% of sales in the Nordic country and climbed in subsequent months to an overall 42.4% market share for the year.

As it seeks to phase out the sale of combustion-engine cars by the middle of this decade, oil-producer Norway has exempted battery-powered vehicles from taxes imposed on those running on petrol and diesel.

As a result, Norway has the world's highest rate of electric vehicle use, making it a valuable testing ground as carmakers seek to promote new models.

In January, German automaker Audi's fully-electric e-tron sports utility vehicle was Norway's top-selling car for the second time in four months, hitting a market share of 9.4%, registration data showed.

Audi delivered 902 electric SUVs, ahead of Renault's Zoe with 533 cars and Volkswagen's Golf with 511.

In 2019, Tesla's mid-sized Model 3 was the most popular car in Norway, with about 15,700 vehicles sold for the year, racking up an 11% share of the market.

The California-based firm last week announced it would start early deliveries of its Model Y, a crossover utility vehicle, amid rising competition from the likes of Volkswagen, Ford, Audi, Volvo and Daimler AG.