Top Car Brands in Norway: Norway’s Most Popular Cars

Norway is a big country where it’s essentially needed to have a car to get between places once you get out of the major cities, and Norwegians have on average 0.6 cars per person.

This is a huge figure when you consider in the fact that it includes children, so it’s common for families to own two cars. But which car brands to Norwegian swear by?

The top car brands in Norway are Volkswagen and Toyota, followed by Volvo. These 3 car brands are responsible for over 1/3 of all cars in Norway, and are by far the most common car brands on the road in Norway.

Avis Rental Car in Lofoten
Rental Car in Lofoten. Photo published with permission.

Volkswagen is definitely in the lead with close to 400,000 cars on the road in Norway, while Toyota is lagging behind with 340,000. Volvo is much further behind with just over 230,000.

The other car brands are much closer in terms of numbers, and both BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Audi, Nissan and Skoda are found int he 100,000 to 200,000 range.

Top 10 most popular car brands in Norway in 2022

Statens Vegvesen (Norwegian Public Roads Administration) publishes a yearly report about the car brands that are in road use in Norway, so we have a complete knowledge of which car brands are popular, and how many of these cars are actually used.

The cars on the list are only including cars that are registered to drive on the road. This requires the owner to pay a fee, so it’s a high probability that the list is actually very accurate.

Anyway, let’s get to the list of the top 10 cars in Norway!

RankCar BrandNumber of registered cars
1Volkswagen390,425
2Toyota340,385
3Volvo231,013
4BMW183,626
5Mercedes-Benz161,684
6Ford156,808
7Audi154,228
8Nissan133,109
9Skoda106,202
10Mitsubishi96,979

Norway has a high fee for registering new cars, so they are generally very expensive. It’s common to buy used cars in Norway unless you have a lot of money lying around, which makes car brands that are reliable over a long time period attractive.

Driving in front of Oslo Opera House.
Driving in front of Oslo Opera House.

The numbers are from the end of 2022, and we won’t get the official 2023 numbers until we’re a bit into 2024.

But isn’t Norway filled with Teslas?

Tesla cars are insanely popular in Norway, and they top the list of all new car brands sold. They will likely make it to the top list of most popular car brands in Norway in a few years, but they are still lagging a bit behind the more established car brands that have been sold for several decades already.

There are generally sold around 20,000 new Teslas every year in Norway, and it seem likely that they will make it to the top 10 list when the full figures for 2023 are ready.

Despite the fact that the EV tax exempt is being gradually removed, Teslas and other EVs are increasing in number on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, 1 in 3 cars in the big cities like Bergen and Oslo are EVs, but rural Norway has much lower percentages still.

Tesla chargers at a Norwegian gas station. Photo by Nicklas Iversen / The Norway Guide.
Tesla chargers at a Norwegian gas station. Photo by Nicklas Iversen / The Norway Guide.

You will see a lot of Teslas on the road in Norway. Norway has a great electric charging network with pretty much all gas stations providing EV chargers, and it’s definitely easy to use an EV when vacationing in Norway. They are also becoming increasingly popular as rental cars, so you should absolutely consider a Tesla or another EV when visiting Norway.

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