Automotive: Norway, the electric kingdom
Audio 02:30
Charging station for an electric car.
© CC0 Pixabay / Stux
By: Marina Mielczarek
7 min
Norway becomes the first country in the world where half of the cars are electric.
In Oslo, the government did everything to: abolished taxes and economic incentives continue to convince the population.
But buying an electric vehicle is still expensive and not always adapted to the geography.
Publicity
If one day, you feel like converting your inhabitants to electric cars, here are two recipes: offer them free tolls in city centers, and then, the possibility of driving in the lanes of buses and taxis.
In Olso, it worked!
So well done elsewhere that to make up for the shortfall in tax revenue, the Norwegian government has just announced the freezing, for this year at least, of these two privileges.
The objective has not changed, 100% of new vehicles will be electric, hydrogen or hybrid.
Zero taxes, zero noise, companies are missing
In addition to its impact on pollution, electric transport considerably reduces noise in large cities as in medium-sized towns.
However, a latest survey of road professionals shows that buyers are individuals.
Companies prefer diesel or gasoline cars.
Oyvind Solberg Thorsen, director of the Norwegian Road Federation, remains confident as the sales tax cuts remain attractive.
"
The government and Parliament,
he said
, are on the same line.
They decided to take advantage of Norway's water resources to develop hydropower.
Batteries for electric or hydrogen cars come today and will come from this clean energy.
With tax cuts, Norway wants to encourage sales of clean vehicles.
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Youth in favor of all electric
In Norway, buying an electric car remains expensive, at least 47,000 euros.
But the population and especially the youth are proud of this broken record.
Becoming the first country in the world to have a fleet of nearly 54% electric vehicles is a source of national pride.
If they cannot afford a car, students and young adults opt for scooters, e-bikes.
With much publicity, the country knows how to praise its water wealth.
If the construction of dams and electric motor battery factories remain polluting (with CO2 emissions), they are proving to be winners in the long term.
All studies prove it: there is no such thing as 100% clean energy.
The future of the motorist: the energy mix
In Norway, even the most advanced electric vehicle manufacturers recognize it: the future of the European car lies in the energy mix.
With, in the next ten years, the offensive of new hydrogen engines.
They still have to be manufactured with hydraulic plants.
When it comes from a hydraulic reaction (from water, not from minerals, oil or other thermal sources), hydrogen turns from gray to green.
It is so called, green, because it is known to be the least polluting.
The exhaust of the cars that it will supply will only be composed of water.
Asia has signed, Norway is filling its order books: it will export its hydraulic energy.
Super chargers by the road
Unlike its European neighbors, Norway has been able to equip its roads with electric charging stations.
There are several sizes of terminals and it is planned to expand the network across the country.
The range of a car can go up to 400 km and the mesh extends over journeys connecting cities.
Franck Orban, professor at the University of Östfold, in the south-east of the country, is alarmed at the all-electric offensive.
While acknowledging the effort in installing charging stations, he remains convinced that in a country of fjords and forests, people in remote areas will never opt for this kind of car, "
I a shared feeling for this electrical transition.
Of course, I admire the Norwegians, they follow the choices of a government they admire.
However, in the north of the country, towards Lapland and the west, the region of snow-covered forests where winters and landscapes are harsh, locals will never have the same recharging offer as in the cities.
This can create a feeling of mistrust among city people, the Oslo elite, and people in remote areas.
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The electric 4X4, sales champion in 2019
Other voices are rising in Norway to denounce public subsidies.
Thus, researcher Bjart Holtsmark of the SSB statistics institute, denounces the mass purchase last year of large SUV cars, according to him too noisy and emitting fine particles.
Last year, the electric 4X4 was the best-selling vehicle in the kingdom.
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