in Electric vehicles

Thanks to Volvo XC40, Market Share of BEVs Breaks 40% in Sweden

Apparently it helps that all-electric Volvos, coming from a Belgian factory, are no longer supply constrained. At least not in Sweden. In November 2022, all-electric vehicles (BEVs) were 42% of the total market, PHEVs were 22%, plug-in vehicles overall reached 65%. And the Swedish vehicle market is starting to look much like the Norwegian one.

Volvo XC40. Photo not taken in Sweden. Photo: Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz

Do I see 40%? Looking at the stats at one website which provides real-time registration data, I was wondering if the market share of all-electrics in Sweden would exceed 40%.

That would be big news, because you normally don’t see such results in any country except Norway.

But it happened. The market share of BEVs ended up at 42.47%.

Another interesting statistic is that merely 35% of vehicles sold in Sweden cannot be charged from a charging station or a wall socket.

Belgian factory resumed production

Sales of the all-electric Volvo XC40 basically slowed to a halt during the summer. The Belgian factory where they are made was idle because (at least that’s the official reason) it had to be retooled for the production of the new variant of the XC40 — a cheaper, single-motor variant. Which is now finally reaching customers, and it shows in the results for both October and November.

No all-electric cars or SUVs are made in Sweden. So the XC40 is probably the closest thing to a Swedish BEV that a Swedish person can buy. The Polestar 2 is made in China. Both Polestar and Volvo Cars have the same Chinese owner, Geely (it’s only Volvo Trucks that remains a Swedish-owned company).

In November, sales of the all-electric XC40 in Sweden reached record levels. Over 2,000 units of the all-electric XC40 and its C40 “coupe SUV” sibling (counted together) were sold; that was about 1/5 of the all-electric vehicle market.

MG: the budget brand is more popular in Sweden than in Norway

Some of the major players in the Swedish BEV market are Volvo, Volkswagen, Tesla, MG and Hyundai-Kia. What is MG doing there?

Well, it’s doing what it’s expected to do — it’s selling electric vehicles that are generally more affordable than the competition. Recent tests of the long-range variant of the MG ZS EV, done by Bjørn Nyland in the neighboring Norway (in mildly cold weather, but not extremely cold weather), yielded some interesting results, with the model delivering decent range and clocking a pretty good time in the “1000 km challenge”: the MG was able to cover that distance in a shorter time than some much more expensive models.
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Source: mobilitysweden.se