Norway recently cemented its status as one of the most electric vehicle friendly countries, by announcing that its postal service delivery fleet is going green thanks to the addition of nearly 300 Kangoo Z.E. electric vans.
This is just the latest development in a country that has seen wide acceptance of electric cars, with about 50,000 electric cars on the roads.
A recent article on Transport Evolved succinctly outlines the big incentives waiting for Norwegians who take the plunge, and go for EVs.
“With new car buyers eligible for free parking and charging in Norway’s cities, zero percent sales tax and freedom to avoid traffic jams by driving unimpeded in bus lanes, electric cars are cheaper and more convenient to own in Norway than an internal combustion engine vehicle.”
Emission Targets Will Keep EVs Going Strong in Norway
New car registrations in Europe ballooned to 12 million units from 2012-2013, due to economic recovery after the financial crisis of 2008-2009.
But more cars on the roads also means more emissions in the air, which governments are trying to mitigate via stringent emissions standards.
The EU has set the target to reduce CO2 emissions by 130 g/km from 2015 and 95 g/km by 2020. Norway, on the other hand, set emission targets of 85g/Km by 2020—a full 10 grams below the planned EU target of 2020—in a bid to aggressively promote clean transportation in the country.
Increased Investment in Charging Infrastructure are a Boon to Market Growth
One of the issues with EVs has always been the availability of charging infrastructure, since having your car run out of juice mid-drive is hardly an ideal situation. To take this concern out of the equation, the Norwegian government is investing heavily in charging stations to increase sustainability of battery-operated vehicles.
As of 2014, there were around 5,700 charging points in Norway, out of which 12.8% were fast chargers. According to recent Technavio research, these stations are expected to multiply from 2015 to 2019. Tesla Motors is working to install 120kW super chargers through main traffic corridors, which charge 50% of the battery in 20 minutes. To top it all off, 14 super charging stations are already installed across Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland, and Technavio estimates that these numbers are going to increase significantly during the forecast period.
And it’s not just the charging infrastructure that’s getting a facelift—the batteries themselves are also getting a boost, with manufacturers increasingly focusing on developing high power lithium-ion batteries.
The use of power train systems in EVs has increased the use of high power density Li-ion batteries in Norway, and this trend is expected to continue over the next four years.
For more information on electric cars in Norway, check out Technavio’s new report on the lithium-ion battery market for EVs in Norway 2015-2019.
