By Marie Mannes

SKI, Norway (Reuters) -Like many Norwegians, Espen Lysholm is not a fan of Elon Musk these days, uncomfortable with the world's richest man's lurch into right-wing politics.

He does, however, love Musk's cars.

"I'll be honest that it's a bit of a double-edged sword having a Tesla," said Lysholm, who bought a Model Y in May - his third new Tesla in less than a decade.

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Musk's politics - he helped bankroll Donald Trump's U.S. election win last year and has championed European far-right parties - have sparked a fierce consumer backlash.

But while that anger has provoked acts of vandalism against Tesla cars and dealerships and pushed once loyal customers, particularly in Europe, to ditch the brand, sales in tiny Norway are booming, at least for now.

"I did think a bit around all that's going on with the company and the brand," said Lysholm, who works at a cartech company in the city of Trondheim.

"But it's really all about the charging infrastructure and the seamless technology of the car. No one comes even close."

In the first half of this year as Tesla sales plunged by half or more in Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, they grew by 24% year-on-year in Norway, making the country of 5.5 million the company's second-largest European market.

Tesla and Musk did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Reuters interviews with Norwegian Tesla owners as well as EV industry experts highlight a 12-year relationship between the Nordic nation and the carmaker that, despite recent signs of strain, has bred brand loyalty and insulated against blowback.

"In many ways, you could say Norway helped build Tesla," said Christina Bu, secretary general of the Norwegian EV Association.

"Everyone in Norway knows someone who owns a Tesla," she said. "It's more personal."

'NORWAY ROCKS'

Though small - its market represented less than 12% of Tesla's European sales in the first half of the year and a tiny fraction of the company's global revenues - Norway holds symbolic importance for the brand.

It was the first country outside of North America to receive Tesla's flagship EV, the Model S, in 2013. And the company helped build Norway into the world's leader in EV adoption.

Tesla built its first Supercharger network outside of North America in Norway, locking in new customers with the promise of a vast web of fast-charging stations for their EVs.

In return, Norway gave Tesla a global showcase for its technology, and Musk, once a regular visitor to the country, praised its government's subsidy-backed EV policies.

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"Norway rocks," he wrote in 2022 on Twitter, the social media platform he bought and later renamed X.

The Model S rapidly became the best-selling car in Norway where EVs now account for 94% of all new vehicle sales.

In 2021, Tesla took the title of the country's leading car brand outright and has accounted for between 11% and 20% of total new car registrations in each of the last five years.

That dominance, however, is now being challenged.

Volkswagen temporarily seized the top spot in the first quarter. Volvo Cars' EV offering is also fast winning over Norwegian drivers.

And Chinese manufacturers, including BYD, XPeng and SAIC Motor's brand MG, together seized a 12.3% share of new sales in June.

BOYCOTT TO SAVE

Tesla is, for now, successfully fending off the growing threats to its crown in Norway and overcoming the popular disenchantment with CEO Musk.

New Tesla registrations dipped 4% last year and the early months of 2025 were marked by subdued sales.

But Norwegians snapped up its refreshed Model Y SUV, which first came out in March, as well as a lower-priced version released in May.

"Having the ease of operation, having a car that fulfills your needs and for a very affordable price, that is much more important to the Norwegian car buyer than dealing with Tesla shame," said Oyvind Solberg Thorsen, head of the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV).

A promotional blitz that saw Tesla offer zero-interest financing and free supercharging in May likely contributed to a 213% spike in Tesla's new car registrations.

"It's practically free money, so I jumped at it," Lysholm said.

The same promotion did not prevent steep sales declines in Nordic neighbours Sweden and Denmark, however, where no Tesla models cracked the list of top-10 sellers in July, according to OFV.

The big question for Tesla is whether Norwegians' loyalty to the brand will last.

Research from polling agency Norstat published in February showed that 40% of Norway's Tesla owners believe Musk's political activism is hurting the brand, though more than half of Tesla owners polled said they intended to buy another Tesla.

Odd Bakken, a Tesla owner since 2014 who once admired Musk as a visionary, won't be one of them.

Driving his Model S from Oslo to his home in the southern town of Ski, he told Reuters he still loves the technology.

"Tesla was the first electric car that was actually a good car," said Bakken, who at one point sat on the board of the Norwegian Tesla owners club.

It was a two-way relationship, with Tesla posting pictures on its social media of Bakken's Model S on a 2014 trip to northern Norway.

But after Musk moved to back Trump and rally behind political movements like Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany, he decided Norwegians needed to show their displeasure via their pocketbooks and convince the company to push him out.

"To save Tesla, we need to boycott Tesla," he said.

That doesn't mean he wouldn't buy a second-hand model though.

"Because the company doesn't benefit from us buying their used cars," he said.

(Reporting by Marie Mannes; Additional reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis in Arendal and Alessandro Parodi in Gdansk; Editing by Nick Carey, Brian Thevenot, Adam Jourdan and Joe Bavier)

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