Norway just delivered one of the most striking EV milestones yet — and Tesla was at the center of it.
In 2025, Norway shattered its all-time new car sales record, with registrations climbing to nearly 180,000 vehicles as buyers rushed to lock in purchases ahead of higher electric vehicle taxes set to take effect after the new year. According to a CarUp report, that year-end surge pushed fully electric vehicles to an astonishing 96% share of all new car sales, further cementing Norway’s status as the world’s most EV-friendly market.
From that record-setting total, Tesla emerged as the clear winner. The automaker captured roughly one in every five new cars sold in Norway last year, finishing 2025 with 34,285 registrations — good for a 19.1% market share. That put Tesla comfortably ahead of Volkswagen, which finished with a 13.3% share, and Volvo at 7.8%.
“Taking almost 20% market share during a year with record-high new car sales is remarkable in itself,” said OFV director Geir Inge Stokke, noting that Tesla achieved the feat with a relatively small lineup. “When a brand also achieves such volumes with so few models, it says a lot about both demand and Tesla’s impact on the Norwegian market.”
Tesla’s dominance was even more pronounced at the model level. The Model Y once again topped Norway’s sales charts with 27,621 registrations, accounting for 15.4% of the entire car market by itself. The Model 3 also landed in the top five, contributing another 3.7% of total sales. Together, the two models underscored just how deeply Tesla has entrenched itself in Norway — a sharp contrast to much of Europe, where Tesla sales slumped across several major markets during 2025.
The surge was largely driven by policy changes. Buyers rushed to take delivery before a post–new year VAT increase of roughly 50,000 kroner (about $5,000) on many electric vehicles, pulling demand forward and inflating year-end figures. Still, Tesla’s results build on an already historic year in Norway, where the Model Y has now overtaken the Nissan Leaf as the country’s best-selling EV of all time and where Tesla set multiple annual sales records well before December even ended.
While questions remain about how demand will normalize in 2026, one thing is clear: in Norway, Tesla isn’t just competing — it’s defining the market.
