New EV Charging Stations Can Drop In Anywhere

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Last Updated on: 17th May 2025, 04:39 pm

By now, everybody knows that Norway has unlocked the secret of selling more electric vehicles. Still on the list, though, is building up the nation’s EV charging infrastructure. Eventually, the demand for charging ports will run into a grid bottleneck, gumming up the works and slowing down the pace of the EV transition … or not, as the case may be.

Norway Needs More EV Charging Stations …

Auto industry observers attribute Norway’s skyrocketing pace of EV uptake to supportive government policies and a decades-long awareness raising campaign. The country’s lack of a solid domestic auto manufacturing industry also helps neutralize the political pressure against importing electric cars.

By 2013, Norway already had a fairly robust EV charging station network in place. As EV sales continued to rise over the years, however, concerns about the state of the nation’s electricity grid also surfaced.

“One big issue cropping up in Norway is the capacity constraints on the electrical power grid,” observed the global gas station and convenience store consulting firm PDI Technologies in 2023.

“With thousands of new EVs hitting the roads, the grid is getting overloaded in some areas of the country. It turns out that Norway’s electrical grid was never built to handle large clusters of EVs charging at peak times. And upgrading the infrastructure turns out to be extremely expensive and time-consuming,” PDI added.

… And, Here They Come

As noted by PDI, one solution is to enact demand-response incentives for charging during off-peak hours. However, that may be little more than a temporary fix in areas where the grid infrastructure is already weak, particularly as the demand for public fast charging stations increases.

Another, more permanent workaround has emerged alongside the state of energy storage technology. The cost of EV batteries has been sinking, and stationary battery systems have also become more economical and more compact.

The Norwegian startup Elywhere is among those seizing the opportunity. The company is marketing a containerized, transportable DC charging station with an integrated battery. The battery can be topped off slowly, during periods when sufficient grid capacity is available, making a quick charge available to drivers at any time.

Who Needs More EV Charging Stations?

I had a chance to see Norway’s EV sales success first hand during a trip to Oslo last week, and it’s all true.* EVs of all makes and models are everywhere you turn, including the eye-catching Renault 5 parked inside the airport, where you can get a last look at the future of zero emission mobility before you head to your departure gate.

With all this activity, one might expect a good deal of congestion at public EV charging stations in Oslo. However, there are some significant mitigating factors. The availability of home charging is a big one. Oslo is a also walkable city, and e-scooters are noticeably popular along with e-bikes, bicycles, and cargo bikes. The city’s ubiquitous trolleys and its subway system help, too. Vehicle traffic was very light in the city center throughout the four days I spent there, including weekend and workday traffic.

Still, Norway’s EV transition is still in the middle stages. There are plenty of gasmobiles on the streets, and as these switch over to electric the need for new EV charging stations will increase.

Gas station owners, for one, are adapting to the rapid pace of EV turnover by replacing gas pumps with charging stations. They need a quick, economical way to hook up to the grid, and Elywhere’s charging-plus-storage solution fits the bill.

The Battery Assessment Factor

Elywhere grew out of the startup Evyon, which launched in 2020 as a specialist in repurposing used EV batteries for stationary energy storage. At a press briefing in Oslo, Evyon CEO Jørgen Erdal explained that the low cost of new batteries has changed the financial calculation underpinning the repurposing market, motivating the firm to seek new applications for its battery assessment and managing platform (Elywhere currently purchases fire-safe LFP batteries through the supplier Pixii).

The company’s signature ES charging platform hosts up to four DC charging ports and it is engineered for bidirectional charging, enabling the host site to participate in grid management systems and potentially generate additional revenue.

The ES platform fits on a truck and can be installed anywhere with “a flat spot and a connection,” as Erdal put it. Without the expense and time required for trenching new electrical infrastructure, deployment takes just a few hours. The station can be picked up and dropped off at another location as EV charging needs in the area change, including seasonal uses.

Since only a grid connection is required, the Elywhere system also dispenses with the need for new transformers. That results in additional cost savings. Transformer-free installation can also save a substantial amount of time considering the ongoing shortages in the global transformer industry.

Meanwhile, Here In The US

Among other high profile clients, Elywhere has a relationship with the Circle K chain of gas stations, so keep an eye out for activity here in the US. Despite the ongoing battle against vehicle electrification among certain Republican state and federal policymakers, private sector interest in EVs and EV charging is continuing to rise

The US actually had a chance to lead on global EV sales 30 years ago, starting in 1996, when General Motors launched the ill-fated EV1. That was before lithium-ion battery technology scaled up. GM gave it up after just a few years. Though, the experiment reportedly inspired Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning to launch Tesla Motors in 2003, soon to be joined by Elon Musk as a pivotal investor and CEO-to-be and JB Straubel as a critical CTO for years to come.

GM made another run at the EV market with the launch of the Chevy Volt in 2008, an electric car with a range-extending gas tank on board. By then, the Republican-affiliated right-wing punditry machine was in full swing, with radio host Rush Limbaugh in the lead. Collectively they filled the airwaves with a relentless series of crushing put-downs, souring public opinion against the Volt in particular and EVs in general.

In contrast, the government of Norway is credited with keeping the public informed and aware of the vehicle electrification movement throughout those early years, and the proof is in the pudding. By 2013, sales of electric cars in Norway were already outpacing gasmobiles (see lots more background on Norway here).

In 2021, GM tried to generate some positivity around EVs among the US auto-buying public by referencing the fast pace of vehicle electrification in Norway as the hook for its “Everybody In” pitch. By then, it was too little, too late.

The US won’t catch up to Norway any time soon, especially with the government of US President Donald Trump throwing one monkey wrench after another into the electrification works. Still, presidents come and go. Electric vehicles were here long before Trump vaulted into the Oval Office, and they will be here long after he finally leaves — peacefully — on January 20, 2029.

*This trip was made possible by the communications firm Arc Press.

Original Renault 5 photo by Tina Casey.