Norway, A View from the Inside

Last Updated on: 31st May 2025, 12:26 am

How does the electric vehicle transition look from the inside? I recently discovered that I have a distant relative living in Norway, Greg Coombes. So, I messaged and emailed him with some questions. I was impressed by the fact that, for him, the EV transition was “normal.” Others, like me, who have been looking on think that it is spectacular. I even sent him a CleanTechnica article on the Norwegian transition. He didn’t react. These are his thoughts and photos:

“As you are most probably aware, there were 3 factors that made EVs popular in Norway. Firstly, no taxes on new EV cars. Now there are taxes on cars costing more than approximately $AU 80 000. Secondly free ferries (lots of them here) for EV transport and free tolls for EVs, also lots of them and many parking concessions. This has changed, in the last 2 years many toll roads and ferries, now take payment. There are already high taxes on fossil fuel cars in Norway, and on fuel, so this has also favoured the adoption of EVs. The last factor is that Norway was, and still is, more or less 100% hydroelectric.

“EV car ownership is so much easier than FF cars. Petrol and diesel here can cost up to $AU3.50 a litre. An EV only needs a service every 2nd year so no oil change every year. Plus, the added saving on ferries and tolls. People do talk about what happens to the batteries, but there are good answers out there for that. BMW uses solar power to charge battery banks at the plants in Germany. People in Norway have done the same at the cabins with old EVs. In fact, this should be just the beginning. Some of the original Nissan Leafs have over 60% battery capacity after 10 years.” And after that they can make their own power plants.

“In regards to impact on the environment, this has been a major step forward in regards to the cleaner air, mainly in Oslo and Bergen, where they also have taxes on cars with studded winter tyres. Although there is an overwhelming amount of EVs on the road and being sold, there are still more fossil fuelled vehicles on the roads.

“The major change in the last 3–5 years has been the driving range of cars, when they started to go over 400 km people in the less populated parts of the country also jumped on the EV wagon. Off course the latest battery technology is giving cars up to 700 km. Not only that, but the harsh Norwegian winter is also having less effect on battery efficiency, also because of better technology.

“We have only owned BMWs, but I do get the impression that the rise of EVs has not impacted greatly on mechanics. As I said there are still a lot of fossil cars on the roads, so even though EVs require less service (every 2nd year) the real impact has yet to be seen. What has also happened is that dealership service prices are fairly much aligned with non-dealership workshops. In fact, BMW service deals are better than non-dealership workshops. I also know BMW has a policy within Europe that that servicing should cost approximately the same in every country.

“Coincidently I was at the BMW dealers today to book a service, for my EV, which incidentally costs $AU 1 200, every 2nd year. So, I took the opportunity to get some answers to your questions from a mechanic. A major service on a big diesel can cost between $AU 2000 to 3000 every second year.”

I think if Greg was driving a Tesla, his maintenance costs would be even lower.

“The mechanic says that now and for the next 5 years at least, there is no impact on the amount business coming in. He thinks maybe in 10 years when FF cars are less prevalent, there will be an impact. One of the reasons for this is that the rate of new models coming on the market has led to manufacturers using customers as trial drivers for their cars. As the new cars have 5 year guarantees nobody is complaining when they go back to get things fixed. There are people here now talking about hydrogen cars, but he says that is a long way off and in the next ten years the future is Electric Vehicles.

“Leasing is a very popular mode of getting a new car in Norway, especially through businesses, but also private. They run a lot of 3-year contracts, our BMW ix3, which we bought 2nd hand is an example. New the car cost close to $AU110 000, 3 years later, with 100 000 kms on the clock, the cost is reduced to around $AU 60 000. It is always difficult to compare Norway with the rest of the world, owing to the incredible fortune the gas and oil brings in, but high incomes also account for the EV success.
We live in a modest income area, about 100kms south of Oslo, it is common that families have two cars, and there has been a gradual change from one fossil and one EV, too both cars being EV’s.”

“Electrification has now encompassed ferries and also heavy transport. Just south of here they are building a charging park for trucks, and lots of tradies have gone over to EV’s like the ID Buzz and other vans. There are BEV heavy trucks, so far just a few, mainly servicing the supermarkets. A huge percentage of taxis in Norway are also EV’s.”

“The main problem we have had is that the government left the running of the charging stations to private companies. I believe they also subsidized quite heavily establishing the infrastructure. What this has meant, and I believed they had cleaned it up last year, was not the number of stations, that is not the problem, it is the number of providers. Not only that, and this is what I believed they had now regulated, is the use of card terminals, instead of Apps, or both.”

Greg cites his wife’s experience as an example: “To further explain the app situation, my wife and her sister were at a mountain hotel, and had help from the receptionist to download the charger provider’s app. She commented about how much time she used helping guests to download the app. This is not easy for many of us over 60.”

“On a couple of recent trips, both north and south, it was confusing, with different providers in different areas. Relatively speaking, in European terms, Norway is quite large, so there are a lot of energy companies, and not just ‘filling up’ like at a petrol station is a major blunder by the government. As you know Norway has the highest percentage of Teslas of any country, and their App is available to everyone, regardless of make of car. It’s a common complaint that you need a lot of different Apps, especially when out travelling. I believe the EV car association has tried to relieve the situation by having an app that works for many providers. I also believe there is a membership fee.”

“The Tesla app makes it easier because they have their own charging parks. One such park, the largest has around 40 charging stations.” See the photo here of Europe’s largest supercharger — 42 stalls in February 2019 when the station was completed. It is located at the exit at Rygge Airport in the direction of Oslo (By Circle K).

“There are lots of charging stations close to shopping malls, hotels and in parking buildings. Most people charge at home, often wall boxes are included in the purchase price, you get them ‘free’. It is not recommended to only use quick charging stations, reduces battery life.” Greg was keen to emphasize that there is no lack of charging stations in Norway. But there are too many apps and not enough being administered by card terminals.

“As a footnote there are of course lots of Norwegians taking off into Europe, or Denmark and Sweden, on holiday etc, but the infrastructure is not the same as here. My advice is: charging stations should be located close to, or at existing petrol stations, and card terminals must be the standard.”