Tesla Motor Inc.’s all-electric Model S became the top-selling car in Norway last month, with drivers in the country of 5 million people paying a premium to buy the award-winning luxury car second-hand to avoid having to wait five months for a new one, dealers said on Tuesday.The high performance Tesla S, which went on sale in Europe in August, had a market share in Norway of 5.1 per cent last month, pushing the conventionally-powered Volkswagen Golf into second place with 4.6 per cent, according to the latest official figures. Some drivers in Norway are now willing to pay as much as $20,000 extra to get the new Model S from existing owners.
Norway’s favouritism towards eco-friendly vehicles is evident in its exemption of electric cars from tolls and their access to bus lanes in the capital Oslo. In this way, the country, which ironically owes much of its tremendous wealth to oil exportation, has created incentives to increase the demand for eco-cars in ways that other countries cannot afford to.
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