Nearly 70 percent were electric cars

Nearly seven out of ten new cars sold in the North in August were electric vehicles. However, there are still significant differences among the Nordic countries.

15.09.2026 16:24 | Updated 16:42

The Road Traffic Information Council (OFV) publishes statistics on car sales and the vehicle fleet in Norway, but in recent years it has also begun to share figures for the other Nordic countries, excluding Iceland.

Now it has released the August figures, which show interesting similarities and differences between us and our closest neighbors.

Increase across the North, but then there were stable numbers...

A common trend is that the share of electric vehicles in new car sales increased in all four markets in August.

Norway recorded another record month with 98.7 percent of new cars being electric, while Denmark also reached a record level of 85.9 percent.

In Finland, however, 51.6 percent of new cars were electric, whereas Sweden had an electric car share of 45.5 percent.

But this refers only to new car sales. When looking at the overall car fleet, the picture is different:

At the end of August, 34.94 percent of Norway’s car fleet was electric. In Denmark, the share was 23.5 percent, in Sweden 9.63 percent, and in Finland 7.34 percent.

– No longer a Nordic phenomenon

But back to new car sales. Geir Inge Stokke, director of OFV, comments on this development as follows:

– The electrification of the new car market is accelerating across the Nordics. When nearly seven out of ten new cars are electric, this is no longer a Nordic phenomenon.

In Denmark, 16,165 new passenger cars were registered last month, 24.1 percent more than in August of last year.

Of these, 13,887 were electric vehicles. This resulted in an electric vehicle share of 85.9 percent, the highest ever recorded in Denmark’s new car market.

And the trend has been accelerating: in August of last year, the share was 69 percent.

Below you can see the share of electric vehicles in new car sales across the four Nordic countries over the past few years. Below that, you can see the share of electric vehicles in the total vehicle fleet this year compared to last year:

More like this?

Sign up for our newsletter

– get electric vehicle news straight to your inbox!

Sweden and Finland follow

In Sweden, 22,156 new passenger cars were registered, representing a 11.6 percent increase from the same month last year.

The share of electric cars in new car sales also rose significantly here, although it remains low compared to Norway and Denmark. The share increased from 34.1 percent in August last year to 45.5 percent this year.

In Finland, the number of registered passenger cars increased by 26.2 percent in August.

The share of electric cars stayed high at 51.6 percent. It was 37 percent in August last year.

So different were our choices

Below, you can see how preferences for car models varied among the Nordic countries last month:

Observant readers might notice that Tesla is only modestly represented on the lists above.

But these lists only show new car sales in August, and Tesla tends to deliver its cars in batches, preferably toward the end of each quarter in Norway.

So a certain Model Y will almost certainly be at the top of Norway’s sales lists again later this fall...

Also read

The post Nearly 70 percent were electric cars appeared first on Norsk elbilforening.