October: Chinese brands becoming more prominent in Norway’s car market
In Norway, 15,536 electric cars were newly registered in October. This meant electric vehicles accounted for a dominant 98.8 percent of all new car registrations, driven largely by strong sales from Tesla and Toyota. Chinese brands are also gaining momentum. Together, they already made up one-fifth of the market in the previous month.
Image: Xpeng
In Norway, 15,725 new passenger cars were registered across all propulsion types in October. This represents a 41 percent increase compared to October 2025 and, according to the road information agency OFV, “the highest figure for October in over 30 years.” The Norwegian automobile market is therefore growing rapidly. While 15,536 out of the 15,725 cars registered in October had electric propulsion, OFV statistics show only minimal registration numbers for all other types of propulsion. More on this shortly.
The relative electric penetration rate of 98.8 percent is high for Norway, but it fits the overall picture: On average so far this year, pure electric vehicles already account for 98 percent of all registrations there (compared to 95.2 percent during the corresponding period in 2025). This has led to stability in Norway, marking the completion of a years-long shift toward electric vehicles. “Norway’s new car market is now almost entirely electric,” the Road Information Authority OFV confirmed recently. “Therefore, competition increasingly focuses on which brands and models perform best in terms of price, range, interior space, delivery time, and financing.”
Before looking at the models, a brief note on basic statistics: In the first ten months of the year, vehicle registrations in that country are now 5.2 percent higher than during the same period in 2025 – and this is after a relatively weak start to the year. However, since registrations in September and October alone are more than 30 percent and 40 percent higher than the previous year respectively, the market has since recovered. “The record year of 2025 could be surpassed,” predicts the OFV.
In terms of propulsion types, electric vehicles had virtually no competition in October with 15,536 new registrations, allowing the other propulsion types to be quickly addressed as well: 89 new diesel vehicles accounted for 0.6 percent of market share, while 14 gasoline vehicles made up 0.1 percent of all new registrations. For completeness, there were also 33 gasoline plug-in hybrids (0.2%) and 53 gasoline full hybrids (0.3%).
Looking at the individual models, the Tesla Model Y once again tops the list with 1,429 new registrations in October. Behind Tesla, the competitive landscape is more diverse: the Toyota bZ4X takes second place with 725 units. Closely following are the VW ID.4 (553), XPeng G6 (542), and Audi Q4 e-tron (535), with the Mercedes-Benz GLC in sixth place at 508 units. The BMW iX3 (446), BYD Evo 4×4 (372), and Toyota Land Cruiser (415) follow. The Volvo EX30 (340) completes the top 10. The table below shows the detailed ranking:
| Rank | Model | Count | Percentage |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Tesla Model Y | 1,429 | 9.09% |
| 2 | Toyota bZ4X | 725 | 4.61% |
| 3 | VW ID.4 | 553 | 3.52% |
| 4 | XPeng G6 | 542 | 3.45% |
| 5 | Audi Q4 e-tron | 535 | 3.40% |
| 6 | Mercedes-Benz GLC | 508 | 3.23 % |
| 7 | BMW iX3 | 446 | 2.84 % |
| 8 | BYD EVO 4×4 | 437 | 2.78 % |
| 9 | Toyota Land Cruiser | 415 | 2.64 % |
| 10 | Volvo EX30 | 340 | 2.16 % |
| 11 | Changan Deepal S05 | 338 | 2.15 % |
| 12 | Skoda Enyaq | 324 | 2.06 % |
| 13 | BYD Sealion 7 | 310 | 1.97 % |
| 14 | VW ID.7 | 308 | 1.96 % |
| 15 | Volvo EX40 | 308 | 1.96 % |
| 16 | BMW iX1 | 303 | 1.93 % |
| 17 | Skoda Superb | 300 | 1.91 % |
| 18 | Toyota C-HR+ | 299 | 1.90 % |
| 19 | XPeng G9 | 236 | 1.50 % |
| 20 | Suzuki Vitara | 226 | 1.44 % |
| 21 | Zeekr 7GT | 219 | 1.39 % |
| 22 | Smart #5 | 204 | 1.30 % |
| 23 | Audi Q6 | 199 | 1.27 % |
| 24 | Kia EV5 | 177 | 1.13 % |
| 25 | Hyundai Kona | 176 | 1.12 % |
| 26 | Ford Explorer | 172 | 1.09 % |
| 27 | Nissan Altima | 169 | 1.07 % |
| 28 | VW ID.3 | 169 | 1.07 % |
| 29 | VW ID.Polo | 167 | 1.06 % |
| 30 | Subaru Uncharted | 155 | 0.99 % |
The ranking shows that an increasing number of Chinese electric vehicles are in demand in Norway. “More than one in five new vehicles in October came from a Chinese brand (22.5 percent) – the highest share ever recorded in a single month,” confirms OFV. At the brand level, Tesla remained the top seller in October with 1,548 units, just ahead of Toyota with 1,493 units. Together, these two manufacturers account for nearly 20 percent of the market share.