PHEV is regarded as the perfect solution when transitioning from fossil-fuel cars to BEVs since it is eco-friendly and does not bear the burden of range anxiety, though such transitional product has been dropping rapidly in sales in the Norwegian market that is mostly occupied by BEVs.
Norway has the highest penetration rate of BEVs in the world, where BEV sales had accounted for 74.8% among new vehicle sales during August this year, and the figure would rise to 86.1% if PHEVs were included in the statistics.
With that being said, it is noteworthy that PHEVs had dropped from 15.8% during the same period last year to 11.3%, even though BEVs had slightly grown by 3% to 71.9% in market share. Simultaneously, hybrids that cannot be charged had increased in market share from 4.5% last year to 7.7%.
Vehicles with internal combustion engine had further dropped from 7.7% to 6.1% in market share, which indicates that Norway’s market share of new fossil-fuel cars has been fixated at 5-10% since the second half of 2021, showing how there are still a number of people who insist on purchasing fossil-fuel vehicles even in a country with excellent conditions such as Norway.
PHEVs, initially growing expeditiously alongside BEVs, have been shrinking in market share since 2022. The increase in BEV quantity has yielded an expansion in infrastructures, and the concerning problem of charging is no longer an obstacle. On the contrary, PHEVs are adopted with engines that take away the usable internal space, and come with burden from maintenance, where advantages now become disadvantages.
Car owners who despise charging in outdoor environment and love to go on long-distance drives would rather go for fossil-fuel models, or the gas-saving hybrid under this era of high oil prices, instead of the crippled PHEV.
The current status of Norway’s auto market may soon happen to other countries. This has also verified the expected expansion of EV product lines among traditional auto manufacturers, as the sole reliance on PHEVs would be eliminated from the market once charging equipment popularizes.
Norway has evidently arrived at the latter phase of the oil-to-electricity process, and PHEV will soon give up its throne to BEV, though the country may still retain about 9% of market share for fossil-fuel vehicles in 2022, which is a lot to catch up for the 2025 target.
(Cover photo source: Volkswagen)