Record rush in 2022 - now it's completely off

Both 2021 and 2022 ended up being very strong years, given car sales in Norway. But part of the explanation for the rise in 2022 was the government’s tax changes in the fall. It made securing a new car before the New Year very profitable.

From January 1, a new weight tax has been introduced for all cars. In addition, a value added tax has been introduced for electric cars costing more than NOK 500,000.

The year-end rush set a December record.

But now the industry has awakened to a whole new daily life.

87 percent decrease

Statistics from the first three weeks of 2023 show a near halt in new registrations, according to industry website bilnytt.no.

Specifically, the figure is 670 new cars. For the same period last year, the number was 5,244. Although January last year was nothing to brag about, so there is talk of a drop of up to 87 percent in 2023.

Not having so many new cars registered in the first weeks of 2023 wasn’t unexpected. After all, December was a record month, with a good margin—and nearly 40,000 cars registered. But the fact that it was so quiet for the first three weeks is still amazing, says Bilnytt editor and managing director Atle Falch Tuverud.

— We see some auto ships coming in now, so the pace of enrollment will probably pick up, but Q1 cancellations are expected in both new contracts and deliveries.

Lots of uncertainty

New car projections from Norwegian car importers for 2023 range mainly from 130,000 to 155,000 registrations. In other words, well below 174,000 last year.

Excited: The editor at Bilnytt — Atle Falch Tuverud — is excited about what the 2023 car year will be like.

– It is likely that more cars will be delivered than will be sold, since many of them have been on waiting lists for a long time. Many importers still have large reserves of outstanding orders. The auto industry is happy with that now that things are a lot calmer in the shops, Tophrod continues.

He believes there will be lower demand reserves and shorter waiting times by the end of the year, if nothing new happens in supply chains again.

Tesla transmissions have caused tremendous interest

Mazda at its best

94 of the 670 cars registered in the first three weeks of January are Mazda MX-30s.

The Japanese brand only has one electric car, and it’s usually at the bottom of the charts.

It’s possible that the MX-30s being credited now were models that weren’t ready before the new year. In other words, no new sales were made this year.