It's not just the best-selling electric vehicle. It's not just the best-selling green car. Nope, the Tesla Model S EV managed to hit the top of Norway's list of all vehicle sales in September, Agence France-Presse reports, citing Norwegian research firm Opplysningsraadet for Veitrafikken (OFV).
In raw numbers, it's not a lot of cars. Norwegians bought 616 Tesla sedans last month, meaning that the Tesla EVs accounted for about one in 20 new cars sold. It's a rough comparison, when we look to the US, the four Toyota Prius variants accounted for about one in 70 new cars sold here last month. All told, EVs accounted for almost nine percent of new-vehicle sales in Norway last month, the AFP says, easily outselling hybrids, which accounted for about seven percent of new car sales in Norway.
Tesla's numbers held steady after topping Norway's new-vehicle list for the first half of September, beating out the far more conventional Volkswagen Golf in the process. Tesla has only been selling the Model S in Norway since August and began deploying its network of Superchargers last month, saying at the time that about 90 percent of the country's population lives within a 200-mile radius (or a really fun two-hour drive in a Model S) of a station. We have to wait and see if these high initial sales represent much more than pent up demand that finally gets access to the slick EV. One way to find out will be to compare Model S sales during the first six months it's available with the quite-popular-in-Norway Nissan Leaf EV. We'll let you know around February.