Adoption of Chinese cars and the shift to electric vehicles: Early evidence from Norway

Chinese auto manufacturers have started exporting electric cars to developed markets. I study data from the world’s leading market for electric vehicles, Norway, to provide some early descriptive evidence on the patterns of Chinese-brand new car sales. Using a Bayesian multilevel regression model, I find evidence of local peer effects: A higher proportion of sales of a Chinese branded car in a postal code increases the probability of a new car sale being Chinese. I also hypothesize that municipalities with high penetrations of electric cars will be associated with higher penetrations of Chinese-branded new car sales. I do not find evidence for this. • Chinese electric car makers may face information barriers in foreign markets. • I find evidence for peer effects in promoting the purchase of Chinese cars. • I use a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate the results.