c4004matic

80% of Norways' new cars are EV's..... Mike drop....

Utopia Texas

A milestone for sure but one has to remember the whole country of Norway does not have the population of the Houston,Texas Metropolitan area and a tremendous amount of travel between cities/towns in Norway is by boat.

Diesel Benz

Could you then give figures for the Houston, Texas Metropolitan area for comparison with Norway?

Please define "tremendous" in this context. Most likely unusually high percentage of boat rides (on boats they do not like EVs by the way) but the hard to reach towns are few and have very few people even in the "Norwegian scale".

I'd say the high percentage of electric cars comes from cheap and very clean (a bit of wind power, all the rest hydro power) electricity, significant subsidies and the people living close with the nature and being environmentally aware.

bishop64

Of your 3 listed factors, the Reuters article only suggests ''significant subsidies''.
And I bet this might be the chief factors among the 3.
Hong Kong is a city with about 7.5 million people (vs 5.5m of Norway). Despite the huge drawback of long-charging time of EVs (vs gasoline cars), the first half of last year had about 50% of new car sales be EVs.
The only attraction is, as one might guess correctly, is that the local government has been giving significant tax exemptions and subsidies to make EVs appealing to the 'impatient' HK people.
And 50% of new car buyers bited the bait...lol

Diesel Benz

So you are saying Reuters knows less than me.

I don't know the facts but I assume EV subsidies in Norway are lower than those in China. The ICE tax (don't know the name in China) appears to be high too, specifically for bigger engines (as I've learned from you). Might be relatively more attractive to purchase an EV in China than Norway?

EV charging time may really be a huge drawback in Hong Kong but in Norway (any of the sparsely populated areas) everyone can charge their EV at home. No problem if it takes a long time overnight when electricity is cheap too.

Honestly I'm more surprised about the EVs in the US. Again, did not check figures but feels like a relatively high environmental factor behind the boom? No more EV subsidies in my country but a very high CO2 penalty for ICE cars drives towards EVs and PHEVs. A bit different situation in every country.

c4004matic

The subsidies are "substantial", however, they are ending. The main direct one to the buyer was no car sales tax, which Im sure as in other countries are quite substantial. Indirectly, the government has subsidized the charging network. Yes Norway has a small population but it also shows how the market can flip in a blink. Furtheremore, that if given the opportunity, people will gladly switch to EVs. By the way Norway is one of the countries that has a complete nuclear cycle, including a permanent geologic repository.

ua549

EV travel can be significantly more expensive when one includes overnight lodging costs because of the range limitations and recharge time. My monthly trip from Clearrwater to New Orleans - daylight driving only - takes about 10 hours. In an EV an overnight stop is required because the 2 charging stops bumps into my daylight driving only restriction. When EV driving range (<300 miles) is lengthened to be comparable to that of ICE vehicles (>450 miles), an EV can work for a single car family.

My neighbor has a '19 Tesla P100D with a stated range of 289 miles. On her last trip she got about 150 miles range driving with a/c at 70 mph or about half of the stated range. I wonder what the EQ's actual range is under similar conditions.

rbourge

I have driven my EQS 580 for a year now only in town on surface roads because long interstate trips are prohibited by lack of fast chargers within reasonable range. 2 days ago I took a 80 mile round trip with the partial charge estimated range at departure showing 220 miles. At the end of 80 miles of travel driving 75 -80 mph on the interstate my remaining range was down to 75 miles, an EQS estimated 145 mile trip. Apparently the range estimate was calculated based on a full year of slower urban driving with a lot of recuperation and significantly miscalculated my first interstate drive. The temperature was 70 degrees and the AC was running but it usually runs almost year round here.

ScottC2

The long-present EV subsidies in Sweden received a "cap" in early 2022 of very roughly USD 70k.
Then, on November 8th this year, they abruptly ended. No subsidies for cars ordered after this date.
Residential charger installations are still being subsidized, however - typically reducing the installation and equipment cost by 50%.

Diesel Benz

Really, but is it a complete cycle when they have zero nuclear power plants? Only Sweden and Finland of the northern Europe countries have nuclear power plants.

c4004matic

They dont have any yet because they get it from hydro.

Diesel Benz

I'm aware of that (plus the minor wind power and the very minor thermal power they have). I just was not aware of this nuclear cycle. Their bedrock neither is equally stable as their neighbours'.

c4004matic

Screwed up my countries.....Finland has the kongvterm repository. My bad.

Diesel Benz

Close enough. I doubt different European countries are well known in the US, at least not the small ones. As if I knew how each state in the US differs from the others.