Tesla was Norway's best-selling car brand in October 2026, but only just. It registered 1,548 new cars, 55 more than Toyota's 1,493, in a month when the market grew 41.2% to 15,725 new passenger cars, according to final figures from the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council (OFV).
The Model Y was the best-selling model on 1,429 registrations, almost twice the Toyota bZ4X's 725 in second place and 141% more than the 592 it managed in October 2025.
Two days decided it
On 29 October, OFV's month-to-date count still had Toyota ahead, 1,363 to 1,336. Tesla then registered 212 cars in the last two days of the month, against 130 for Toyota.
It is also Tesla's best October in Norway. Its previous best was 1,348 cars in October 2024, according to the trade site Bilnytt.
That is unusual for the first month of a quarter. Tesla delivers to Norway in waves that peak in each quarter's last month, and the months before are usually quiet: in August it registered 627 cars and finished fourth, then 4,935 in September. Bilnytt says Tesla barely registered at all until the second half of October, when a shipment from China arrived.
| October 2026 | New cars | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tesla | 1,548 | 9.8% |
| Toyota | 1,493 | 9.5% |
| Volkswagen | 1,308 | 8.3% |
| BMW | 1,025 | 6.5% |
| XPeng | 932 | 5.9% |
| Volvo | 851 | 5.4% |
| BYD | 816 | 5.2% |
| Audi | 787 | 5.0% |
| Mercedes-Benz | 720 | 4.6% |
| Škoda | 690 | 4.4% |
| All brands | 15,725 | 100% |
Shanghai, not Berlin
Bilnytt reported on 30 October that almost all of the 1,336 Teslas registered by 29 October had been built at Tesla's Shanghai factory, and only two at Grünheide near Berlin. A year earlier, it said, most Norwegian Teslas came from Berlin.
Its explanation is the EU's tariff on Chinese-built electric cars. A Shanghai-built Tesla pays a 7.8% countervailing duty on top of the 10% import tariff when it enters the EU. Norway is not an EU member and charges neither. So, Bilnytt says, Berlin's output goes to EU markets and Shanghai's goes to Norway. OFV's public statistics do not show where a car was built, and Tesla has not commented.
Counting those Teslas, Bilnytt put the share of China-built cars in Norway's October market above 33%. Chinese brands alone had 24% by 29 October. XPeng was fifth for the month and BYD seventh.
Ten months in
Norway registered 130,922 new passenger cars from January to October, 5.2% more than a year earlier, and 98.0% of them were electric.
| January–October | 2026 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla | 21,523 | 22,391 | −3.9% |
| Toyota | 14,126 | 7,862 | +79.7% |
| Volkswagen | 12,096 | 16,492 | −26.7% |
Tesla still leads the year by 7,397 cars. The Model Y is down 6.6% to 17,647, while the Model 3 is up 12.0% to 3,860.
The last two months may run hot. The government's 2027 budget proposes halving the VAT exemption for electric cars from 1 January, which would add NOK 37,500 to a Model Y. Buyers who register before year-end would avoid it. The 2025 record was 179,531 new cars, and Bilnytt says 180,000 is within reach this year.