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It's interesting to me that Norway is such a leader in deployed EVs simply because of their Sovereign Wealth Fund getting so much of its revenues from Oil inter

It's interesting to me that Norway is such a leader in deployed EVs simply because of their Sovereign Wealth Fund getting so much of its revenues from Oil interest. That would be like Saudi Arabia having 30% EVs, seems crazy. The other fun number is that the US was only 160k out of the 2M vehicles. Much more in line with the US population proportion to the world. A signal perhaps of the US's waining global leadership. Perhaps in the next ten years America will shrink back into a regional superpower.

panzer_wyrm 9y ago
The less oil Norway uses domestically the more they can sell on the market
- acchow 9y ago
  Are you an economist? This is not how economics works. It's frustrating to see overly-simplistic statements passed off as facts by supposed "experts" on HN. The actual economics is way more complicated. Some thoughts to ponder: 1) Why don't other countries oil-producing nations try to minimize their own oil consumption in a similar way? 2) Why don't other countries do the same with whatever natural resource they have an abundance of?
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - Brakenshire 9y ago
    Yeah, its a moral thing, and also to a degree an economic diversification policy. Saudi is actually doing a similar thing, trying to encourage non-oil industry.
    - tonyedgecombe 9y ago
      They aren't having much success though, the curse of oil and all that stuff.
  - gcb0 9y ago
    because most oil producing countries can't have the luxury of also having hydro power. When they do, the comment you called a liar is very true.
eagletusk 9y ago
Norway and Tesla sales: http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/03/11/288611696/norway-takes-the-lead-in-electric-cars-with-generous-subsidies http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/03/11/288611696/n... Norway's fund has actually start to divest from fossil fuels in a large way : https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/05/norways-wealth-fund-sells-out-of-73-companies-as-fossil-fears-grow https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/05/norways-...
- peterjlee 9y ago
  I think guimarin meant that the fund is mostly from the sale of the oil from Norway. Since Norway is making money from selling oil, it does makes sense to diversify and invest in other industries.
lxvr 9y ago
"electric cars on the roads around the world rose to 2 million in 2016" vs "160,000 total EVs sold in the United States in 2016". Doesn't take away from your point, and the article clearly states China is leading, but those numbers are not directly comparable (cumulative total vs 2016 sales).
- guimarin 9y ago
  You're absolutely right. Totally missed that nuance (damn word ordering). It does change my point to be a bit less strong, but I guess I'd say that I'm still happy that the number is large in the rest of world. This is a global problem.
ZeroGravitas 9y ago
Norway also gets cheap renewable electricity from hydro. I believe they use more electric home heating than many other countries for that reason. (Similarly, oil states in the gulf are investing in solar, as it's simply cheaper).
pilom 9y ago
I doubt it has to do with the US's waning global leadership and more to do with the fact that Americans drive longer distances per year than people in any other nation. There are HUGE parts of the US where you literally couldn't get an electric car to without putting it on a flatbed or using standard 15 amp house outlets for days. I work from home and travel through rural parts of the US all year long and there is no way people who live >100 miles from an urban center would EVER think about buying an electric car because of range anxiety even with the new 200+ mile ranges that aren't really available outside a handful of cities. The US is a large country with lots of empty space in it.
- imgabe 9y ago
  Yeah, having driven across the US twice I don't think people realize how much empty space there is. There's a whole lot of nothing out there. Don't get me wrong, much of it is great and beautiful. It's also really, really big. We probably have stretches of uninhabited land larger than some countries.
  - kesselvon 9y ago
    plenty of places in the country where you can drive for 5 hours and not pass a town with over 1k living there
- kilroy123 9y ago
  Why not? With a massive charging station network and plenty of places to charge up.
- vvanders 9y ago
  Yeah and there's nothing wrong with that, I don't think EVs should be forced on areas where they don't work. That said I live ~50mi from the nearest major metro area and have had no issues with EV ownership for the last 2.5 years. I've got a 250mi operating radius from my house(charging overnight) and there's at least 2-3 superchargers in each direction with that kind of range.
- bkjelden 9y ago
m-j-fox 9y ago
I paid for my Volt with some oil rights I inherited. Sure, I'm way net carbon polluting on that deal. But the Volt is sweet.

panzer_wyrm 9y ago

The less oil Norway uses domestically the more they can sell on the market

acchow 9y ago
Are you an economist? This is not how economics works. It's frustrating to see overly-simplistic statements passed off as facts by supposed "experts" on HN. The actual economics is way more complicated. Some thoughts to ponder: 1) Why don't other countries oil-producing nations try to minimize their own oil consumption in a similar way? 2) Why don't other countries do the same with whatever natural resource they have an abundance of?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- Brakenshire 9y ago
  Yeah, its a moral thing, and also to a degree an economic diversification policy. Saudi is actually doing a similar thing, trying to encourage non-oil industry.
  - tonyedgecombe 9y ago
    They aren't having much success though, the curse of oil and all that stuff.
- gcb0 9y ago
  because most oil producing countries can't have the luxury of also having hydro power. When they do, the comment you called a liar is very true.

eagletusk 9y ago

Norway and Tesla sales: http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/03/11/288611696/norway-takes-the-lead-in-electric-cars-with-generous-subsidies http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/03/11/288611696/n... Norway's fund has actually start to divest from fossil fuels in a large way : https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/05/norways-wealth-fund-sells-out-of-73-companies-as-fossil-fears-grow https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/05/norways-...

peterjlee 9y ago
I think guimarin meant that the fund is mostly from the sale of the oil from Norway. Since Norway is making money from selling oil, it does makes sense to diversify and invest in other industries.

lxvr 9y ago

"electric cars on the roads around the world rose to 2 million in 2016" vs "160,000 total EVs sold in the United States in 2016". Doesn't take away from your point, and the article clearly states China is leading, but those numbers are not directly comparable (cumulative total vs 2016 sales).

guimarin 9y ago
You're absolutely right. Totally missed that nuance (damn word ordering). It does change my point to be a bit less strong, but I guess I'd say that I'm still happy that the number is large in the rest of world. This is a global problem.

ZeroGravitas 9y ago

Norway also gets cheap renewable electricity from hydro. I believe they use more electric home heating than many other countries for that reason. (Similarly, oil states in the gulf are investing in solar, as it's simply cheaper).

pilom 9y ago

I doubt it has to do with the US's waning global leadership and more to do with the fact that Americans drive longer distances per year than people in any other nation. There are HUGE parts of the US where you literally couldn't get an electric car to without putting it on a flatbed or using standard 15 amp house outlets for days. I work from home and travel through rural parts of the US all year long and there is no way people who live >100 miles from an urban center would EVER think about buying an electric car because of range anxiety even with the new 200+ mile ranges that aren't really available outside a handful of cities. The US is a large country with lots of empty space in it.

imgabe 9y ago
Yeah, having driven across the US twice I don't think people realize how much empty space there is. There's a whole lot of nothing out there. Don't get me wrong, much of it is great and beautiful. It's also really, really big. We probably have stretches of uninhabited land larger than some countries.
- kesselvon 9y ago
  plenty of places in the country where you can drive for 5 hours and not pass a town with over 1k living there
kilroy123 9y ago
Why not? With a massive charging station network and plenty of places to charge up.
vvanders 9y ago
Yeah and there's nothing wrong with that, I don't think EVs should be forced on areas where they don't work. That said I live ~50mi from the nearest major metro area and have had no issues with EV ownership for the last 2.5 years. I've got a 250mi operating radius from my house(charging overnight) and there's at least 2-3 superchargers in each direction with that kind of range.
bkjelden 9y ago

m-j-fox 9y ago

I paid for my Volt with some oil rights I inherited. Sure, I'm way net carbon polluting on that deal. But the Volt is sweet.