Over Half of Norway Car Sales Are Now Electric (reuters.com)

The Norwegian Road Federation (NRF) said on Monday that almost 60 percent of all new cars sold in the country last month were fully electric, "a global record as the country seeks to end fossil-fueled vehicles sales by 2025," reports Reuters. From the report: Exempting battery engines from taxes imposed on diesel and petrol cars has upended Norway's auto market, elevating brands like Tesla and Nissan, with its Leaf model, while hurting sales of Toyota, Daimler and others. In 2018, Norway's fully electric car sales rose to a record 31.2 percent market share from 20.8 percent in 2017, far ahead of any other nation, and buyers had to wait as producers struggled to keep up with demand.

The surge of electric cars to a 58.4 percent market share in March came as Tesla ramped up delivery of its mid-sized Model 3, which retails from 442,000 crowns ($51,400), while Audi began deliveries of its 652,000-crowns e-tron sports utility vehicle. The sales figures consolidate Norway's global lead in electric car sales per capita, part of an attempt by Western Europe's biggest producer of oil and gas to transform to a greener economy.

Comments

Proof of viability

[AmiMoJo]

Norway has severe weather, sub zero temperatures for much of the year, heavy snow, and people need to travel long distances. All the things that people say make EVs unsuitable.

Norway put in the infrastructure. Charging everywhere. EVs work great there.

Well done Norway.

Re:Proof of viability

[Anonymous Coward]

Very little of this is significant and barely even true. I live there. Most Norwegian live in areas where is just goes under freezing for 3-4 months at most, heavy snow is uncommon, cleared very effectively and few people commute very far at all.

They are a success because of tax. Petrol cars have a 100% tax, electric have zero, so a Telsa cost a similar amount to a medium sized car, a Leaf was cheaper than a well equipped hatchback. Plus they travel free on the toll roads and Norwegians have a lot of money they need to try to find a way of spending. In fact it was so successful the government had significant issues with the hole in the budget caused by the lack of income from reduced taxable car sales.

Re:Proof of viability

[brinkie]

They have this problem as well with fossil fueled cars, that is why many cars in colder climates (e.g. Scandiavian countries, Canada) are equipped with a block heater. My Volvo has one, plug it into mains an hour or two before you leave and a 550 Watt element in the engine block (replaces a freeze plug) will bring the coolant 20-30 degrees centigrade above ambient temperature. When plugged into a charger, many electric cars will do the same, they will pre-heat the batteries and heat up the car's interior when it's cold, to save battery consumption while on the move. Conversely, when it is hot summer, they will turn on the a/c.

Re:Proof of viability

[Oswald McWeany]

Very little of this is significant and barely even true. I live there. Most Norwegian live in areas where is just goes under freezing for 3-4 months at most, heavy snow is uncommon, cleared very effectively and few people commute very far at all.

It's all relative though. If I have one day where it's still freezing by noon I consider that pretty darn cold nowadays. What you consider not so bad a winter, many people on here would consider pretty severe. I've lived in 3 countries and never seen more than 7cm of snow fall, I'm sure 7cm is nothing to you though . I've seen how 3 inches can cause havoc on a city not prepared for snow. Heck, I've driven in my car behind a dump truck that had two men standing in the back shoveling sand on to the road as it slowly rolled forwards- that's the best remedy the city I lived in had to deal with the snow (that was in the mid-South, US). They didn't even have salt. "Heavy Snow is uncommon" vs "Heavy Snow would bring the city to a complete grinding halt."

What people were worried about is that sub-freezing temps would make the electric car not work. Norway has definitely proven this wrong.

There are few heavily populated places on earth that have REALLY severe weather- there's a reason most Norwegians live in the less severe parts of the country, I'm sure. Nonetheless, electric cars have proven they can do well in Norway, they've proven they can do well in almost any HEAVILY-POPULATED area. Maybe they won't do as well North of Trondheim (maybe they would), but people in those conditions represent a very small percent of the world's population.

They are a success because of tax. Petrol cars have a 100% tax, electric have zero, so a Telsa cost a similar amount to a medium sized car, a Leaf was cheaper than a well equipped hatchback. Plus they travel free on the toll roads and Norwegians have a lot of money they need to try to find a way of spending. In fact it was so successful the government had significant issues with the hole in the budget caused by the lack of income from reduced taxable car sales.

Aye, and that's a good model for the rest of us to follow.

Re:Proof of viability

[AmiMoJo]

You forget to add: Norway has the billions of tons of oil exports to pay for it.

So has the US. So has the UK. So have lots of countries. But only Norway did it.

Re:Proof of viability

[Ol Olsoc]

They have this problem as well with fossil fueled cars, that is why many cars in colder climates (e.g. Scandiavian countries, Canada) are equipped with a block heater.

Finally - I'm amazed that it took someone this long to point out the truth. We have petrophiles complaining about cold batteries, and ignoring that some folks start fires under their oil sump to get their vehicles warm enough to start.

In Alaska cities, parking meters have electrical outlets to plug your car into to keep it warm.

Re:Proof of viability

[nospam007]

"Actually the other classic anti-EV argument, the off-grid remote cabin with no possibility of solar or wind power, is actually a thing in Norway too."

They get 95% of their power from hydro and those all in the sticks as well.

Re:I wonder where their electricity comes from...

[Cesare Ferrari]

Oh, a bit of digging says that they are almost entirely hydroelectric production, so this is an actual real reduction in fossil fuel dependance. Awesome!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Norway is a bit of a special case here

[svirre]

Large EV sales in norway are due to subsidies to the tune of the equivalent of USD~10-30000 pr. car:

* Goods (including cars) normally carry a 25% VAT. BEVs are exempted. (Easily worth USD 10-20000)
* Non BEV cars additionally carry taxes calculated from emissions and weight. Additional taxes for cars tend to range from the USD equivalent of USD 2000 to many tens of thousands for large performance cars.
* There are a lot of toll roads in norway. Many car drivers can spend the equivalent of USD 3000 annually on tolls. BEVs are expempted from tolls. (This benefit will likely be reduced shortly, but a 50% saving has been assured)
* Many cities have free parking for BEVs (Also likely to be a reduced benefit going forward)

For usability: Most roads are limited to 80km/h and most drivers do not drive excessively long distances. 15000 km annually is the average.
The parts of norway where very long driving distances are common (Northern Norway) BEV penetration is very low.
Winter range of BEVs can drop a bit on the coldest days but norway is mostly temperate. Subzero temperatures usually only occur 30-60 days pr. year in most populated areaes. (Though it varies greatly, but so does BEV adoption)

Note that the high numbers of EV sales in march is significantly due to that Tesla delivered ~5000 cars in. Tesla tends to deliver cars towards the end of the quarter, and Q1 saw the first availability of model 3 which had a large pent up demand, so do not expect next month to repeat this number.

Re:Norway is the perfect place for EVs

[angel'o'sphere]

- Norway never goes below -3C
If you would write:
- Norway never goes below -30C it still would be wrong ... on what planet do yo live?

Re:I wonder where their electricity comes from...

[houghi]

That is an even better thing. They used the gains from their country for the good of the people, instead of for a few individuales that own shares in the company.

Can you imagine that instead of the oil barons in Texas, they would have put that money into use for the people, to be used by the people? Or instead of the coalmine owners, used that money to re-educate the people now their jobs became useless.

Re:All good until...

[AmiMoJo]

Presumably you are talking about replacing lead acid batteries every three years.

EV batteries are different. Warranty on most is around 8 years and 100k miles, some offering considerably more. So if it did die after three years you would get a free replacement.

People have been driving around EVs for getting on a decade now in places like Norway, Scotland and northern Japan and the batteries have proven durable. Even something like the original Nissan Leaf which has minimal thermal management for the battery turns out to be fine.

Modern EVs can both heat and cool the battery as required. For very cold climates they can pre-heat before you set off, ideally while plugged in so it doesn't cost you any range.

Re:I wonder where their electricity comes from...

[virtig01]

Every drop of oil not burned in Norway is a drop that might not be burned at all: if not used as fuel, it could instead be used in plastics, lubricants, or petrochemicals.

Re:Norway is the perfect place for EVs

[arcade]

Norwegian Tesla owner here ..

I was out driving in less than -20C here in Norway this winter, so that bit is patently false.

There's plenty of chargers.

Norway might be small area wise, but length wise (south to north) .. think San Diego to Vancouver.