Sales of new cars in Norway are now so bad that they have not seen a decline since the 1990s. A weak krone and inferior support for electric cars are to blame.
The Norwegians are once again too serious about buying new cars. In fact, sales of new cars have not seen a decline in Norway for more than 30 years.
This shows figures from the Road Traffic Information Council, which were released on Thursday last week.
New car sales in July have fallen by as much as 14.2 percent compared to the same period just one year ago. And that is almost 34 percent lower than when the corona pandemic came to Norway in the summer of 2020.
All in all, only 6,456 new passenger cars got Norwegian license plates in the month of July. For comparison, 11,517 cars were registered in Denmark in the same period.
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The used market is not doing quite so badly. In fact, three percent more used cars changed hands in the month of July this year. But overall, the Norwegian car market has rarely looked worse.
This is due to a number of things. Blue. due to very high interest rates and a weak Norwegian krone, it is generally very difficult to borrow for a new car.
The car manufacturers have not really sent new cars to the market that interest the Norwegians and the advantages of buying are now being gradually phased out by the Norwegian state.
In addition, the state is increasing the tax on hybrid cars, even though these cars are very fast in many other places in the world at the moment.
– New car sales are also characterized by large discounts and reductions, and there are many "stock cars" that have a new owner in July. Now there is a fierce battle for every single sale, says OFV director Øyvind Solberg Thorsen in a press release.
Norway's car sales are not the only ones suffering. In Germany, car brands with electric cars on the program have had a more than difficult time since the new year. In fact, sales of electric cars in Europe's largest car market have only gone one way since December 2023. Read more about it here .
Read more exciting news from and about the world of cars right here!
