In Norway, the Electric Vehicle Future Has Started
BAMBLE, Norway — About 180 kilometers south of Oslo, a fueling station along the highway offers a glimpse of a future where electric vehicles rule.
Chargers far outnumber gasoline pumps at the service area operated by Circle K, a retail chain that got its start in Texas. During summer weekends, the line to recharge sometimes backs up down the off-ramp.
Last year, 80 percent of new-car sales in Norway were electric, putting the country at the vanguard of the shift to battery-powered mobility. The country will end the sales of internal combustion engine cars in 2025.
There are problems, including unreliable chargers and long waits during periods of high demand. But the air in Oslo, the capital, is measurably cleaner. The city is also quieter as noisier gasoline and diesel vehicles are scrapped. Oslo’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen 30 percent since 2009, yet there has not been mass unemployment among workers and the electrical grid has not collapsed.
Some critics portray the fight against climate change as requiring grim sacrifice. “With E.V.s, it’s not like that,” said Christina Bu, secretary general of the Norwegian E.V. Association, which represents owners. “It’s actually something that people embrace.”
There is still a problem where the rubber meets the road. Oslo’s air has unhealthy levels of microscopic particles generated partly by the abrasion of tires and asphalt. Electric vehicles, which account for about one-third of the registered vehicles in the city but a higher proportion of traffic, may even aggravate that problem.
“They’re really a lot heavier than internal combustion engine cars, and that means that
Clean air and quiet streets, but not problem-free.
they are causing more abrasion,” said Tobias Wolf, Oslo’s chief engineer for air quality.
Another persistent problem: Apartment residents say finding a place to plug in their cars remains a challenge.
Sirin Hellvin Stav, Oslo’s vice mayor for environment and transport, said the city wants to install more public chargers but also reduce the number of cars by a third to make streets safer and to free space for walking and cycling.
“The goal is to cut emissions, which is why E.V.s are so important, but also to make the city better to live in,” she said.
Ms. Stav acknowledged what she called the hypocrisy of Norway’s drive to reduce greenhouse gases while producing lots of oil and gas. The government has not pulled back on oil and gas production.
“We have several fields in production, or under development, providing energy security to Europe,” Amund Vik, state secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, said in a statement.
Elsewhere, Norway’s power grid has held up fine even with more demand for electricity. It helps that the country has abundant hydropower. Even so, electric vehicles have increased the demand for electricity modestly, according to calculations by the E.V. Association, and most owners are charging cars at night, when demand is lower and power is cheaper.
Circle K is using the country to learn how to serve electric car owners. Guro Stordal, a company executive, has the difficult task of developing charging infrastructure that works with dozens of vehicle brands.
Electric vehicle owners tend to spend more time at Circle K because charging takes longer than filling a gasoline tank. That is good for food sales. But gasoline remains an important source of revenue.
“We do see it as an opportunity,” Hakon Stiksrud, Circle K’s head of global e-mobility, said of electric vehicles. “But if we are not capable of grasping those opportunities, it quickly becomes a threat.”