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Norway: 37% of new vehicles sold in January were electric
- ebbv 10y agoHaving owned a Nissan LEAF for the last 2.5 years has been really great. Maintenance is almost nothing, the battery has held up fantastic and the car is a real pleasure to drive. Never having to stop for gas or get oil changes sounds like not a big deal but it is really nice. Every morning the LEAF has a full charge. I think the Bolt and other 200+ mile range vehicles that are fairly affordable will help get more people into EVs. The other thing I think we need in the US is an affordable EV crossover. There's rumors of Nissan doing an EV Rogue. If they put a 60KWh battery in it, I think it would sell like gangbusters. Obviously the last hurdle, and a serious one for many people, is that owning an EV without owning a house is really impractical in most places in the US. We need charging stations at apartment complexes, but that's one of those things that is unlikely to happen until EV ownership is widespread enough to make it a feature potential renters will care about.
- lukasm 10y agoI'd buy electric BMW X1. I don't get why BMW has to put an electric motor in something as ugly as i3. Why not put it in 3 series?
- onion2k 10y agoBMW make a plugin hybrid 3 series, and there's a proper electric one coming in 2018.
- sokoloff 10y agoIn Cambridge, MA, my perception is that the "ugly" of hybrids and full electrics is a feature/benefit due to the signaling effect. The original Prius (that looked like a normal Toyota) sold less well than the second generation that was conspicuously saving the environment. Disclosure: I drive a LEAF and live in Cambridge. When my wife and I swapped cars for the day and I asked her how she liked the LEAF, her answer was, "I really liked the idea that I was saving pollution and that my friends could see me getting out of a LEAF."
- jagger27 10y agoRight? It's not like they didn't know that people /want/ normal looking cars (ehem, the Model S proved that). Why didn't they adapt a Mini or something else more familiar for their first kick at the market?
- twelve40 10y agoThat was my biggest beef with electric cars. I found all these new designs repulsive and was puzzled by the fact that by some universal law, any electric car must come with an ugly design. As soon as regular-looking ones started appearing, I got one (an e-Golf) and a year into it, cannot be happier with it.
- mantas 10y ago> We need charging stations at apartment complexes Not only stations, but all parking spots at the apt complexes should be electrified. And some way to authorise the charge to make sure a friendly neighbour doesn't leech off somebody else's electricity.
- varjag 10y agoIt's less of a problem than it seems. I have an EV living in a large apt complex. There's an EV charging area with stations accepting tokens that you buy from the housing coop. The tokens pay down the cost of the stations and of electricity, so they are not an externality imposed onto ICE vehicle owners. Zero problems.
- gsnedders 10y agoTo be fair, most of the apartment blocks I'm aware of in Norway don't have any dedicated parking, but there are large amounts of free on-street charging points at least around Oslo.
- flurdy 10y agoI think widespread charging plugs in apartment complexes and car parks come with demand and some encouragement with tax breaks over time. People that may already have an EV will prefer complexes with available plugs when moving flats, the government may encourage new complexes to add plugs by default, etc. But it may take time if not general incentives to increase market share of EV are made. I know by my parents 'housing estate' in Norway the cars there are now around 1/3 EVs (mix of eGolf, Leaf and Teslas), and in the indoor basement carpark, there is now a plug to charge the cars by each spot. (Also helps to heat up conventional cars in the morning...). And they are just rebuilding the external garages to include proper plugs due to demand by the residents. Ps. I am looking forward to the Jaguar I-Pace (http://www.jaguar.co.uk/jaguar-range/i-pace-concept-car/index.html http://www.jaguar.co.uk/jaguar-range/i-pace-concept-car/inde...) Though not perhaps an affordable crossover. Especially as Im in the not so EV friendly UK).
- jagger27 10y ago> the government may encourage new complexes to add plugs by default, etc. No need. Any semi-premium builder is more than happy to add features to their spec sheet, and 240V outlets are nothing special. Retro-fitting older places is where things get expensive and iffy.
- TheAdamAndChe 10y agoKeyword: semi-premium. Electric vehicles are only accessible to the rich at the moment. We need to make it possible for poorer people to get electric vehicles too.
- digi_owl 10y agoExpect the numbers to drop right back down again in a few years. A major reason for people owning a EV, a law that was introduced back when Thinks were the big deal EV to have (yeah, right) that allowed EVs to use the bus lanes and not pay a toll, have been repealed. Note that it was only when Tesla made the EV comparable to a sportscar that it picked up in Norway. And that was because now the rich of the nation could bypass the rush hour traffic and not pay road tolls, while still own something that looked and drove like the neighbors gas guzzler. Over time that thinking trickled down to the wider population along with more practical and cheaper EV designs. But now the big incentive is gone, and thus i suspect the trend will reverse soon enough.
- charlesdm 10y agoAren't normal luxury cars also crazy expensive in Norway because the state levies additional taxes on them? I read somewhere that a Porsche Cayman, which costs €70k in Belgium, would easily be €175k (converted in its NOK equivalent, of course) in Norway?
- PhilipA 10y agoYou are thinking of Denmark.
- charlesdm 10y agoJust checked: a Porsche GT4 (€88k in Belgium) costs €180k in Norway. So might be both Norway and Denmark. I have an honest question (and don't downvote me for this), but how do you enjoy life in Scandinavian countries? Everything seems to be taxed to hell: income, wealth, cars, alcohol, etc. Does that actually leave any room for fun that involves spending money? People don't need to be living in massive luxury and you don't always need to spend money to enjoy yourself, but aren't these countries pushing it?
- Numberwang 10y agoI don't think we can really communicate how different things are to f.ex. the US. I enjoy paying lots of taxes and still have lot's of money after doing so. For me the stability and predictability of society is worth contributing to.
- frik 10y agoHow many new power plants are planned? Or do many houses have their own photovoltaic. Optimally, one has a house with 10+KW/H photovoltaic panels at home, an battery storage and an electric car. The battery storage is needed, as one is usually away at work when the sun is shining. And if you deliver the eletricity to the grid provider you get little money, so it would make sense to use the power yourself or store it to power up your car for next day. And of course your employer would need parking lots to power up electric cars. (what would be not optimal to have huge coal/atomic power plants in the neighbourhood that produce the electricity for your car - then a petrol powered car would make more sense) And if you own an electric car, do you own the battery pack too? Or do you have lease the power pack for something like 100$ per months plus all the costs electricity to recharge? - I would like to buy an electric car, and want to own the battery myself.
- kalleboo 10y agoPV in Norway sounds like a bad joke. The northern parts get zero daylight hours for 2 weeks in midwinter.
- kwhitefoot 10y agoNot a joke at all. Oslo gets more sun than Hamburg. Also take a look at the Energibygg: https://translate.google.no/translate?hl=en&sl=no&u=https://www.glitreenergi.no/konsern/apnet-unikt-bygg/&prev=search https://translate.google.no/translate?hl=en&sl=no&u=https://...
- ptaipale 10y agoThe problem is that Oslo, like all the Nordics, gets more sun in the summer when it's less necessary, and practically none in the winter when energy is needed. Norway has so much hydroelectric capacity that it doesn't matter, though.
- kwhitefoot 10y ago> Norway has so much hydroelectric capacity that it doesn't matter, though. We have substantial DC interconnects to countries that have little or no hydro so our prices are no not much different from the rest of Northern Europe. Any excess solar would be sold to Europe just like excess hydro is now. It could also be used to drive pumped storage to ensure that the reservoirs are full for the winter.
- andlier 10y agoThe headline and article are a bit misleading, the share of completely electric cars (no internal combustion engine) is actually dropping compared to last year as there are some newly introduced tax-reductions and benefits for hybrid plug-in vehicles as well. Many of the top-selling cars on the list that is counted as electric are actually cars with a small battery and electric motor along with a traditional ICE. [0] The topsellers of "electric" cars are actually big cars like the VW Passat GTE and Volvo XC90, both of which will probably produce more emissions than smaller ICE-only vehicles through their lifetime (unless the owner is very concious about charging the battery all the time.) [0] http://ev-sales.blogspot.no/2017/02/norway-january-2017.html http://ev-sales.blogspot.no/2017/02/norway-january-2017.html
- Proven 10y agoPeak Plunder! (The country is running a huge 8% budget deficit, partially thanks to these green bandits)
- zxcvvcxz 10y agoCan someone provide data showing how electric cars reduce emissions overall? Having something like this ready would help when discussing with people who are not sure of the benefits of EVs ("it still uses energy right?").
- GlennS 10y agoI haven't looked up the figures for you, but a lot of it is based on future decarbonisation of the electricity grid. Depends on which country you live in of course, but right now in most countries the carbon factors for petrol or diesel will be lower than those for electricity. Norway is probably an exception to this: it has lots of wind, lots of rivers, and lots of money.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- madengr 10y agoCharging at night time uses base load, so greater proportion of nuclear power. Maximum efficieny of a gasoline engine is about 30%, versus 96% for an electric motor, though the battery does have less efficiency. Electricity generated at a power plant using fossil fuels and steam turbines is more efficient than locally in an engine. It's cheap to transport electricity over wires. Fuel still needs to be piped and trucked. So even if your electric car was powered by fossil fuels at the power plant, it's still more efficient.
- majewsky 10y agoIf one strives to reduce emissions from their EV, it would be better to use a charger at the workplace when plenty of solar energy is available during the day.
- ZeroGravitas 10y agoYou can get chargers that connect to the internet and track the carbon content of your electricity on a minute by minute basis, allowing you to charge when it is best for the grid and for the planet.
- johansch 10y agoNorway keeps working so hard at building an eco-friendly image. In reality the oil they pump up from their territory makes them one of the world's most environmentally unfriendly countries (both in absolute numbers and particularly per capita).
- snom380 10y agoAs a Norwegian, I find it fascinating that Norway has an environmentally friendly image. I wonder how much is the "pristine" fjords, and how much is because of the hydroelectric plants.
- johansch 10y agoDon't forget Thorbjørn Jagland.
- cowardlydragon 10y agoWherever you are writing this, the problem is you buying the oil, not them selling it.
- johansch 10y agoIf they didn't extract the oil it would obviously not be burned.
- lobster_johnson 10y agoAnnual CO2 emissions per capita, according to World Bank [1], for 2013 (metric tons), top 51: 1 Qatar 40.4 2 Trinidad and Tobago 34.5 3 Curacao 34.1 4 Kuwait 27.2 5 Bahrain 23.6 6 Sint Maarten 20.8 7 Brunei Darussalam 18.9 8 United Arab Emirates 18.7 9 Luxembourg 18.7 10 Saudi Arabia 17.9 11 United States 16.3 12 Australia 16.3 13 Oman 15.6 14 Gibraltar 15.4 15 Kazakhstan 15.4 16 Estonia 15.1 17 New Caledonia 14.6 18 Mongolia 14.5 19 Canada 13.5 20 Turkmenistan 12.7 21 Russian Federation 12.4 22 Faroe Islands 12.3 23 Korea, Rep. 11.7 24 Norway 11.7 25 Palau 10.6 26 Netherlands 10.1 27 Greenland 10.0 28 Japan 9.7 29 Czech Republic 9.3 30 Singapore 9.3 31 Cayman Islands 9.2 32 Germany 9.2 33 South Africa 8.8 34 Israel 8.8 35 Aruba 8.5 36 Finland 8.5 37 Belgium 8.3 38 Bahamas, The 8.2 39 Libya 8.1 40 Malaysia 8.0 41 Iran, Islamic Rep. 7.9 42 Poland 7.9 43 New Zealand 7.6 44 Ireland 7.6 45 China 7.5 46 Austria 7.3 47 Seychelles 7.1 48 United Kingdom 7.1 49 Slovenia 7.0 50 Equatorial Guinea 6.7 51 Denmark 6.7 Total absolute emissions puts Norway at 52. Carbon intensity [2] for 2011 was the third lowest in Europe among measured countries. [1] http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=2&series=EN.ATM.CO2E.PC&country=# http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=2&ser... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_intensity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_in...
- spikels 10y agoSeems like much of the move to electric vehicles in Norway has been driven by tax incentives (vehicle purchase and fuel). Is the strategy to keep ramping up these incentives until the vast majority of cars are electric in 2025 then simply outlaw new ICE sales?
- rodionos 10y agoNorway is an example of a "great rotation" from gasoline cars into diesel and electrical vehicles. What's also interesting is that it is happening quickly: https://apps.axibase.com/chartlab/bbc5e671 https://apps.axibase.com/chartlab/bbc5e671 Keep in mind, that Norway has abundant hydropower capacity. The wholesale settlement price for electricity out of Norway has fallen from 50 to 30 eurocents over the last 10 years for a variety of reasons such as Denmark's successful foray into offshore wind energy production. As for Tesla, it made it to top-10 by new registrations in 2015: https://apps.axibase.com/chartlab/bbc5e671/3/ https://apps.axibase.com/chartlab/bbc5e671/3/ The annual statistics for 2016 will be released at the end of March, so it would be interesting to see the progress the country has made last year.
- martinald 10y ago30cents a kWh? That seems crazy expensive for wholesale electricity?
- rodionos 10y agoSorry, it's EUR/MWh: from 50 EUR/MWh to 30 EUR/MWh.
- hmottestad 10y agoDiesel is on its way out now too. Creates too much carbon monoxide and other stuff. Had our first day this winter where diesel cars were banned from municipal roads in Oslo, the capital. Got a lot of people scared away from buying diesel.
- cm2187 10y agoI wonder how many electric cars Norway would have bought if it didn't made that much money selling oil...
- cowardlydragon 10y agored herring
- im3w1l 10y agoI see what you are saying, but they could have chosen to pump oil and drive guzzlers too. Yet they didn't.
- peterwwillis 10y agoEVs are a status symbol, either of wanting to protect the environment or project your pocket book, often at the same time. Oslo is basically one big outdoor showroom for Tesla. Four of them passed me while I was waiting for a bus.
- im3w1l 10y agoAnd yet, what is a status symbol is a product of the culture.
- alephnil 10y agoThe main reason for the many electric cars are the tax incentives. It would certainly been a lot fewer Teslas and more Nissan Leafs or similar cars if it had not been for the oil. The tax incentive came when the Think City line of cars was produced in Norway (starting in the late 90s) and was introduced to establish a market for electric cars. Since very few electric cars was sold, this was not very expensive, and few took electric cars seriously at the time. Nobody had anticipated Tesla and similar cars, but now a lot of people had electric cars, and then it was politically difficult to remove the tax incentives.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- 4h53n 10y agoAnd selling 1.6b barrels of oil per day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_exports https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_expor...
- martinpw 10y ago1.6million.