If you think BMW being the top selling car brand in Singapore is an oddity, this is even stranger. The number one selling car in Norway for the month of September 2013 is an electric car. And it’s not a small one like a Peugeot iOn (rebadged Mitsubishi i-MIEV) or a Nissan Leaf – Norway’s best selling car in September is the Tesla Model S!
The Tesla Model S displaced the Volkswagen Golf to the number two spot at 616 units versus 561 units. The Golf has been Norway’s best selling car, but of course it remains the top seller year to date at 5,593 units and has been for the past few years.
Granted, the Model S sales performance is most likely due to the fact that two years worth of orders are being delivered now, but then again Norway has always had a penchant for electric cars, with the Nissan Leaf coming in at second place for the month of April this year.
Norway is a world leader in electric car sales per capita, thanks to government support in terms of tax breaks and usage benefits. Electric car drivers get zero VAT, electric car only car parks, and get usage of bus lanes. As many as 200 charging points are installed in capital city Oslo every year.
To put things into perspective, according to an Automotive News Europe report, a Model S is priced from US$110,000 in Norway, where a typical combustion engine car with the equivalent size and performance would cost up to US$330,000. A BMW 5-Series priced around the Model S has a weaker basic engine. Demand for the Model S is so high that owners are able to sell their cars on the second hand market for premiums of up to US$20,000.
The Tesla Model S is a 100% electric four door car powered by an electric motor. It’s wheelbase of 2,959 mm puts it in the 5-Series/E-Class segment. Its electric motor produces 416 hp and 600 Nm of torque, sending all that power to the rear wheels through a single speed fixed gear transmission.
The 85 kWh version of the 2,108 kg premium EV can go up to 500 km on the NEDC cycle, while the 60 kWh version can travel 375 km on a charge. The 416 hp motor takes it from 0 to 100 km/h in just 4.2 seconds. It’s a five-seater, but can take on two extra kids with two rear-facing seats in the ‘boot’.
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it’ll take bloody 10 years for one of these to come here in malaysia..but im saving my money for it!
Yeah. If the government would make it tax free it could actually be pretty interesting, but then again petrol is way too cheap for such an electric car to make much sense.
The problem is Tesla won’t sell it unless they are also setting up a charging network, SC etc., and right now there are probably more important markets.
This car RV is like Toyota RV in Malaysia. Don’t waste your time buying trash Honda in Malaysia. Buy Toyota for good RV.
Dear Sam,please don’t act like you know everything about sales and resales. Your theory of RV suck big time!
THE MARKET IS EVOLVING ALL THE TIME.
Wow this car looks great!
If it’s a proton, even beautiful one you say fugly.
car prices in Norway are pretty expensive aren’t they?
Kinda hard to compare directly don’t you think? I would be earning 6.3x more doing the same job I have here.
Ignoring daily expenses, other taxes, buying a USD110k car in Norway would feel like me buying a 60k ringgit car here.
But what do I know… Norway has high income tax, that might make things very different..
Yes, but Norwegians earn quite a bit more, and cars are taxed according to weight and performance. So basically if you want luxury, you’ll pay for it, while basic transportation is much more reasonable.
Roughly the same as malaysia then, but being malaysian we bash ourselves a lot.
yeah, but the luxury in malaysia is honda and toyota (vios and city) but norway is a 4.2sec century sprint car.. does it roughly same again? lolz
I want one.
I want one too. The car NTHSA couldn’t crush.
Bfre the car can make any sense, G hev establish charging points first.. if only they cn stop eating rakyat’s money and invest on smthing worthful for greener future.. anyhw they cn start with euro4 compliance.. bt as u can see, hw long its alredy stays as rumour..
Everything the G have to do for you? Go toilet G also have to help? Just kidding, yes, it would be good if the government invested, but private companies could do so too. It is more the governments job to give incentives, making these cars more attractive to buy (and hopefully not by making other cars more expensive). Being tax free for example would help.
thy do have worlds highest income per capita….u do the maths!
The capital, Oslo, is one of the most expensive cities in the world, so im guessing Norwegians are rather wealthier than Malaysians, on average? Anyways, winter is coming soon. Lets see how the batteries perform in the frigid cold.
Suppose no problem in cold weather for battery…for hot n humid area such as bolehland, there might be a problem..battery become less efficient
Have you tried to use NiMH batteries in the cold? I could get 10 photos out of a freshly charged set of batteries before I had to warm them up in my pocket in order to extract a few more shots. In normal weather this set would have easily given me 150-200 photos.
Extreme cold, extreme heat are bad for the batteries. But for that the Tesla has got heating and cooling systems for the battery, to keep temperature ideal (that of course does mean the battery may get drained while parking… so ideally you plug it in when you park).
That might be true…but for current EV battery it is not a problem since the EV car there hav pre heater installed.. How bout for hot n humid weather?
For hot weather the Tesla has an aircon for the batteries.
Two important things that can make or break an EV (besides the normal pricing issue)namely the distance traveled between charging and the charging duration.
500km is an impressive figure. What’s the time required from zero to full charge?
Depends on where you charge it. A 110V plug as found in the US will take forever (one night?), but with a 220V plug it will be quite a bit faster. And if you have a quick charger it will be pretty fast. Also, ideally you don’t fully discharge the battery, and you don’t fully charge the battery. That wears it out faster. As a result, the Tesla will only charge up to 85%, unless you tell the car to fully charge. This not so full charge is also faster… the last few % are what takes a long time. You can see the same thing on your smartphone… getting to 80% should be pretty fast, but the last 20% will take a while.
Btw., Toyota only makes use of 40-50% of the battery capacity with their hybrids (i.e. they never fully discharge, and they never fully charge), and that’s probably the reason why their batteries can last 400000 km.
In fact all manufacturers should develop a mass market electric car now. This is not a car for future anymore, this should happen now.
With the technology, we should be able to charge our car like charging our mobile phone.
Combustion engines with radiator, DSG gear box..dirty oil change..all shall be gone.
It really a nice car to have, referring to its design and technology inside the car. I hope Malaysian government will bring in electric car in the near future. We are moving forward to 2020, right? A government support in terms of tax exemption and other facilities will be a great advantage.
I do see alot of Tesla here in the California especially. Really good looking car about 60-80k price tag if i am not mistaken.
we need more charging stations especially highways RnR and also every major city in malaysia ,then it would be awesome to have this car in malaysia