Amid all the dismal news and Musk smoke and mirrors, there is a very modest silver-ling (at least in the very short-term), as OilPrice.com’s Tsvetana Paraskova reports that sales of Tesla in the Netherlands have been surging this year as a tax incentive on electric vehicles is set to expire at the end of the year.

So far in 2018, Tesla has sold more than 3,000 vehicles in the Netherlands, one of its most important European markets for sales per capita, Electrek reports, citing vehicle registration data. The number of Teslas sold between January and July jumped more than twofold compared to the same period last year.

Model S has been a star sale during the period and accounted for around two-thirds of all Tesla sales in the Netherlands. Model S sold 1,927 units out of Tesla’s total 3,046 Model S and Model X sales. Model S sales in the Netherlands have also surpassed sales of the Model S in Norway, which is Tesla’s strongest market in Europe and the EV maker’s third-biggest market worldwide after the United States and China.

One of the reasons for Tesla’s stellar performance in the Netherlands is the end of a generous tax break at the end of this year, according to Electrek. Model S is a popular company car in the Netherlands, due to the tax break on the Benefit-in-kind (or BIK) for vehicles priced over US$58,000 (50,000 euro), like Model S or Model X. Under the current incentives, the tax is 4 percent, but it will rise to 22 percent beginning in 2019.

In Europe, Norway is Tesla’s the best per-capita market. It is also Tesla’s third-largest market worldwide in terms of revenues after the United States and China, according to Tesla’s annual report for 2017. Tesla’s revenue in Norway jumped to US$823 million last year from US$336 million in 2016.

In Norway, the purchase of electric vehicles is not currently subject to import taxes, taxes on non-recurring vehicle fees, the 25-percent value-added tax, or the purchase taxes that apply to the purchase of gas-powered vehicles, Tesla says.

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ZH: The problem, of course, is what happens next. As we noted previously, the end of Hong Kong’s EV tax incentive led to a total collapse in sales The decline in sales was staggering: After 2,078 new electric vehicles were registered between April and December 2016, that number dropped to 99 last year – though reports that the waiver could be reinstated helped sales rebound in March.

“Scaling down Tesla’s operation in Hong Kong is a natural and logical consequence if the number of customers has dwindled prompted by a reduction of government incentives,” the source said. “Without government support, who is ­willing to invest in green technology?”

Coming to a European nation soon.