From January 1, 2023, Hyundai will no longer sell new hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars in Norway. This follows the end of sales of 100% thermal Hyundai models in the same country two years ago. Hyundai cars will therefore be 100% electric.
As you are certainly aware, Norway is the most advanced country in Europe, but also in the world, regarding the electric car.
In 2021, 64.5% of all cars sold in Norway in 2021 were fully electric. In 2022, this score could approach 80%, or even 90%, taking into account the electrified (hybrid and PHEV). More than 20% of the Norwegian car fleet on the road is 100% electric as reported auto news.
A large part of these figures is due in particular to Tesla’s exceptional year in Norway, in particular thanks to its Model Y. In this regard, the 100% electric American SUV has just broken a record more than 50 years old, by becoming the best-selling car in a year in the country with 16,748 registered units.
Norway, a giant laboratory for Europe
As you will have understood, Norway is a bit of an Eldorado for the electric car, even if, as we know, cold temperatures are not the best friends of electric cars. But with a dense charging network and increasingly hackneyed technology, it turns out that in use, it’s not really a problem anymore.
And this, Hyundai is well aware of, since two years after having stopped selling 100% thermal cars in Norway, the Korean manufacturer has just announced that from 1er January 2023, it was only going to sell 100% electric models. So, in a few days, Hyundai’s hybrid and plug-in hybrid models will no longer be sold in the Scandinavian country.
By early 2023, the Hyundai range will thus be composed like this in Norway: Kona Electric, Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6 and the Nexo, a hydrogen car whose sales, however, remain anecdotal.
A logical strategy
In fact, this will not change much for the manufacturer, since only the Tucson PHEV remained. The share of electric sales at Hyundai in the country is already 90%, with 6% market share. Its success is guaranteed in particular by the Hyundai Ioniq 5, which is in seventh place among the best-selling cars in Norway in 2022 with 4,000 units sold.
The arrival of the new generation of Kona Electric should further accentuate this attractive market share, while the new and attractive Ioniq 6 could steal valuable market share from premium models given its positioning.
As a reminder, in France, we are still very far from Norway’s market share, even if the electric car is gaining ground. In October and December 2022, more new electric cars were sold than diesels for the first time. The electric car market share is around 13% today, and it should increase further in 2023. In France, on January 1, 2022, the electric car represented 1% of the car fleet in circulation. Early estimates point to a share of 1.6% at the end of December 2022.
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