June was a phenomenal month for Tesla. The American automotive and energy company became the top-selling electric car (EV) brand in Norway in June. It also helped boost the electric car market share for all vehicles sold there to nearly 50%.

Tesla was also striving to deliver a record number of vehicles in the second quarter. According to available data, it might have accomplished that goal.

Dominating in Norway

Sales of Tesla vehicles climbed to 3,760 units in June 2019. That’s 24.5% of the market share which made Tesla Norway’s top-selling brand for the month and the year so far with 16.1% of the market share.

• More Tesla vehicles were delivered than the next top-selling brands, VW and Toyota, together.
• The majority of the vehicles sold to Norway in June were Model 3s. 2,999 units were sold.
• Electric cars now make up 48% of passenger vehicle sales in Norway.
• EV sales saw a 40% growth in Norway in 2018. One out of every three vehicles sold were zero-emission.

If Tesla can continue with impressive numbers like the ones above, compiled by Electrek, the company will have a great model to build off of for other countries. If anything Norway will serve a successful case study for the company on what happens when a whole country embraces electric vehicles.

Norway’s love of EVs

There are more electric cars on the road in Norway, on a per capita basis than any other country. Norwegians are among the wealthiest people in the world so many of its people can afford EVs.

The desire for electric cars in every corner of Norway is actually pretty easy to understand, according to NPR. Financial incentives from the Norwegian government for buying electric cars have contributed to EV’s popularity. Not long ago, emissions-free vehicles could park for free and didn’t have to pay ferry and toll charges. That’s no longer true but rates are still discounted for zero-emissions cars, only paying up to 50%.

There are over 10,000 charging stations all over the country. They’re clustered around key areas in cities like shopping centers and large gathering areas. They are also placed on routes between larger cities to make long road trips in EV doable even while they are time-consuming.

NPR points out, the irony here is that while Norway is leading the race in green power, it’s a top producer and supplier of fossil fuels. The country’s wealth is boosted by the fact that it’s one of the world’s leading exporters of natural gas.

Tesla sales everywhere else

Sales of Tesla’s Model 3 improved in May in the U.S. according to data from InsideEvs. But this was after prices were slashed. Stock prices picked up but Tesla isn’t out of the woods just yet.

The company’s sales will need to pick up in the rest of 2019 if it hopes to even get close to the 360,000 to 400,000 cars CEO Elon Musk said he’d sell this year. In 2018, Tesla saw 240,000 worldwide sales.

InsideEVs says Tesla sold 13,950 Model 3s in May in the U.S. which was 10,050 more than it sold in April. That’s still well below what the company had sold in late 2018. Tesla sold 101,700 Model 3s in the last five months of 2018. In the first five months of 2019, it only managed to sell 46,425.

Tesla did see stronger sales of its older Model S and Model X vehicles in May. Sales are still down from what they were a year ago. In the fourth quarter of 2018, the company sold 27,500. In the first quarter of 2019, Tesla only sold 12,700.

While Model 3 sales had a rough start in China and Europe at the beginning of 2019, it saw it’s market share increase from .03% to .19% in April. 

Sales reports for Tesla are figured quarterly instead of monthly. The company maintains that the data is more meaningful that way. According to a spokesperson, Tesla is different from other automakers as it is building vehicles for different markets at different times.