Hyundai announced it will solely offer fully electric vehicles in the Norwegian market starting from January 1st, 2023. This makes Norway the first market in the world that Hyundai goes EV-only.
The bold move from one of Norway’s top-selling automotive brands is rather predictable if you look at the numbers. In recent years, EVs accounted for over 90% of Hyundai’s sales in Norway, making the transition easier than it sounds. More specifically, between 2020 and 2022, Hyundai delivered 25,000 cars in Norway, with a staggering 92% being fully electric.
This percentage is surprising if you consider that the only pure EVs offered by Hyundai up to date were the Ioniq and the Kona Electric. Still, those two models proved to be among the most popular in the Norwegian market where EVs are traditionally a dominant force.
Read: 2024 Hyundai Kona Debuts With Ruggedly Good Looks And ICE, Hybrid, EV Options
Since 2020, Hyundai committed to selling only EVs and PHEVs in Norway, discontinuing the rest of the ICE-only range from the region. Now the automaker takes it a step further by dropping the plug-in hybrid variants of the Tucson and the Santa Fe. Hyundai didn’t clarify if the hydrogen-fueled Nexo will remain on sale, as a zero-emission model with electric motors.
Hyundai started selling EVs in 2016 with the original Ioniq, followed by the Kona Electric in 2018 and the Ioniq 5 in 2021. A few months ago Hyundai launched the brand-new Ioniq 6 which will help in boosting its EV sales even further as proven by the large number of pre-orders in European markets. Note that the 2,500 units of the Ioniq 6 First Edition that became available last month in Germany, the UK, France, Norway, and the Netherlands, sold out in under 24 hours.
Hyundai will soon launch the new generation of the Kona Electric that was recently previewed. More EVs including the Ioniq 7 SUV are expected to debut in the near future broadening Hyundai’s range and covering more popular segments.
