Norway, which already boasts the world's highest number of electric cars per capita, said Monday that electric or hybrid cars represented half of new registrations in the country so far this year.
"This is a milestone on Norway's road to an electric car fleet," Climate and Environment Minister Vidar Helgesen told AFP.
"And it serves to showcase that green transport policies work," he said in an email.
Sales of electric cars accounted for 17.6 percent of new vehicle registrations in January and hybrid cars accounted for 33.8 percent, for a combined 51.4 percent, according to figures from the Road Traffic Information Council (OVF).
In February, those proportions fell slightly but remained high at 15.8 percent and 32 percent, respectively.
Joke's on them. Electric cars can't work in places that are cold or have mountains.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Tuesday March 07 2017, @12:54PM (7 children)
Joke's on them. Electric cars can't work in places that are cold or have mountains.
Geography 101 - Norway - shedloads of hydroelectric power - should be easy to run electric cars off of genuinely renewable energy.
Then there's the question of local transport habits & housing. The weak spots of an electric car are (a) long, impromptu road trips and (b) housing with no garage or off-street parking. Any Norwegians care to comment on how these apply? How many cars never get more than 100 miles from Oslo?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 07 2017, @05:03PM
Ahhh good ole hydro electric, nothing can go wrong with that...
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday March 07 2017, @05:33PM
Well, in Norway they take a boat if they have to go 100 miles...
Other major factor: ICE cars are stupidly expensive in norway (twice the US price and up), courtesy of taxes that electrics don't have to pay.
So the electrics are price-competitive, which means you have very few reasons, if you have to buy two cars, not to get an electric one. Standard commutes in Norway are a lot shorter than in the US, and public transportation, including to the little town in the boonies where I went a few days, is decent, clean and practical.
Norway is the smartest Oil producer in the world.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday March 07 2017, @06:41PM (2 children)
Geography 101 - Norway - shedloads of oil, too. [indexmundi.com]
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Tuesday March 07 2017, @10:08PM (1 child)
So, more electric cars running off hydro = more oil left to export for big $$$
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday March 08 2017, @12:25AM
I guess I'd prefer they turn it into plastic. But, they are pretty aggressive with carbon capture, [norskpetroleum.no] so on the whole it's an improvement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 07 2017, @08:58PM
It is one of the incentives in place to drive change.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Wednesday March 08 2017, @06:47PM
Once when I was bored, I looked at an atlas, and traced the train network in Norway.
I was actually a bit shocked when I found out it just bloody stopped, because "costs too much dynamite to continue that far north" (dunno if that's really the reason, I just made it up)!
How do people actually *get* to Tromsø, Narvik etc.? By boat? By train via Sweden?