Those Vikings are going electric with a vengeance. June was the best-selling month ever for plug-in vehicles in the Nordic countries. In the second quarter of 2017, 18,777 EVs and PHEVs were sold, bring the total number of plug-in vehicles in the region to 199,815.
In Sweden, Finland and Denmark, the PHEV is the preferred vehicle type, and its popularity is growing in Norway as well. “We see significant growth in the PHEV segment, which now has three models that sell more than 1,000 cars in a quarter,” says Jens Christian Morell Lodberg Høj, Chief Innovator at Insero Quarterly. “To a high degree, the reason for this is that more and more interesting models now come as plug-in hybrids.”
The Volkswagen E-Golf was the best-selling EV, with 1,740 units sold (9.55% of the plug-in total). The Mitsubishi Outlander was the best-selling PHEV in the second quarter, with 1,256 sales (8.78% of the total). In second and third place are Volkswagen’s Golf GTE and Passat GTE.
Norway continues to lead the Nordic countries, with 73.8% of total plug-in sales in the region. Sweden is second with 21.7%, and Finland follows with 10.7%. Sales have plummeted in Denmark, which recently pared purchase incentives – it accounted for less than 1% of the regional market.
“The positive development in Finland is driven by the fact that prices on PHEVs have become competitive in the premium segment, and because more public organisations begin buying electric vehicles,” said Lodberg Høj. “In Denmark, we are still awaiting the effect of the change in the registration tax.”
All four countries are adding infrastructure – Norway currently has 9,052 charging stations, Sweden has 3,563, Denmark has 2,546, and Finland has 929, according to Insero.
Source: Insero Quarterly