(cover image source: Callum Stewart)
Electric vehicles have become mainstream in Norway
(photo source: Thomas Lipke)
Some time ago news: BYD Tang will be delivered in Norway at the end of the summer. Previously, Xiaopeng also sold 100 G3s to Norway for the second time. Although the number is not large, as a Schengen Nordic country, accepting Chinese electric vehicle products has caused Chinese manufacturers to make a big fuss.
In addition to burritos, Viking legends, aurora, and white snow, "electric cars" have also become the label of this mysterious Nordic country in my mind.
(Electric Vehicle Market Development Level Indicator: McKinsey Center )
From the McKinsey Center's chart, it can be seen that the Norwegian electric vehicle market's development level is not only ranked first, but also far ahead of other countries in the world.
(Norway adds plug-in passenger car registration Picture source: InsideEVs)
InsideEVs Data shows that the Norwegian automobile market has won about 75% of the annual sales by pure electric and plug-in hybrid models in 2020, of which pure electric models account for half (54.3%). Norway has become the world's first country with sales of pure electric models more than fuel vehicles.
According to the "Strategic Analysis of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Market" jointly compiled by Frost and Sullivan, the penetration rate of Norwegian electric vehicles is close to 100%! Norway is also the country with the highest tram penetration rate in the world. It can be said that electric vehicles have already dominated the Norwegian automobile market.
(Statistics of registered electric vehicles in Norway: Elbil)
The market size of electric vehicles such as this was not achieved overnight. Just ten years ago, the sales of pure electric vehicles in Norway accounted for only 1% of the market (Norwegian Road Federation). But Norway's incentives for electric vehicles were first implemented in the 1990s.
Time comes in 2010, Mitsubishi launched i-MiEV models to the European market, and the following year, the Nissan Leaf (LEAF) was also introduced to Norway. At this point, electric vehicles in the modern sense have finally arrived. The local electric vehicle market in Norway seemed to be impatient and immediately began to develop rapidly. The market share of electric vehicles in Norway has soared to the world's number one.
It is worth mentioning that according to data from InsideEVs, in 2020, the sales champion of Norway's pure electric models was Audi e-tron (9,227 units), the second place was Tesla Model 3 (7,770 units), and the third place was Volkswagen ID.3 (7,754 units).
In the Norwegian pure electric model market in 2020, we can find that South Korea's Hyundai Kona Electric, Japan's Nissan LEAF, Germany's Mercedes-Benz EQC, Swedish Volvo Polestar 2 and even China's MG ZS EV, these models have almost reached annual sales of about 3,000 units. It can be seen that the Norwegian market is compatible with electric models around the world and hugs each other happily.
Seeing this, do you have such a question like me: In this high-latitude country with nearly half of its territory in the Arctic Circle, how did Norway develop the electric vehicle market?
Various reasons create a unique Norwegian electric vehicle market
Decisive reasons —— Policy
First of all, the Norwegian government has a long-term predictable friendly attitude towards electric vehicles, because various political parties in Norway have also formed a good and positive default consensus on the policies of electric vehicles. Therefore, the corresponding consumers are also very confident about electric vehicles. "Mutual Assistance for Confidence" such as
has formed a positive cycle among Norwegian people and effectively promoted the promotion of electric vehicles.
The policy tradition of favoring electric vehicles began in 1990: Norway canceled its purchase tax for zero-emission vehicles (at that time the average car purchase tax was 1,000 euros).
Then, in 1996, the annual road tax on electric vehicles was greatly reduced. In 1997, electric vehicles were exempted from tolls.
Starting from 2001, even leasing electric vehicles will be exempted from 25% VAT.
Norway has compressed the purchase cost of electric vehicles to a minimum to improve the cost-effectiveness of electric vehicles at that time.
Subsequently, the government increased the right to road for electric vehicles by allowing electric vehicles to enter the bus lane, prioritize parking, and free ferrying.
So far, the Norwegian government has gradually improved the cost-effectiveness and right-of-way of electric vehicles through "open source" to compete head-on with fuel vehicles.
(Price comparison between Audi A7 and Tesla Model S for sale in Norway (2017): Elbil)
After reading the above comparison, what would you choose if you were Norwegian?
In terms of "salary severity", the Norwegian government's attitude towards fuel vehicles can be seen from the price of imported car A7.
As an importer of automobile products, Norway itself has a high tax on fuel vehicles: greenhouse gas tax (726 Norwegian kroner/kg), and registration taxes based on the weight of the vehicle, carbon dioxide emissions, nitrogen dioxide emissions and cylinder capacity, etc.
The complex taxes of many projects have pushed up the price of fuel vehicles and increasingly highlighted the cost-effectiveness of pure electric models.
In Norway, the government has such a clear policy orientation, which is the main reason why everyone switches to electric vehicles.
replenishment experience is relatively complete
"increase revenue and reduce expenditure", the cost-effectiveness of electric vehicles as commuting tools has been significantly highlighted, but the biggest trouble in user experience is charging and replenishment.
After the 2008 financial crisis, in order to stimulate economic recovery and ensure employment, the Norwegian government produced and installed about 1,800 conventional Schuko-points (home-filled piles) nationwide in the two years 2009 to 2010, spending a total of 50 million Norwegian kroner. Although many first-generation Schuko-points are no longer available today, they did promote the electric vehicle experience at that time.
This also made Norwegian people become accustomed to using home recharge as the main way to replenish electric vehicles.
In terms of fast charging station layout, the Norwegian government spent 50 million Norwegian kroner to build it from 2010 to 2014. However, a unified payment system was not established in the early stage, and most operators came from local companies engaged in public utilities, which also laid hidden dangers for people to argue in the future whether the payment standards should be unified.
(Norway’s public charging pile number chart: Elbil)
So far, Norway has about 17,000 public charging piles, and the public charging network covers almost the whole country.
(As of March 2017, the number of fast charging stations and BEVs of Norwegian: Norwegian Public Roads Administration and NOBIL)
The layout of fast charging stations in Norway is related to the layout of electric vehicles, reflecting a strong market orientation. This has led to the lack of good public fast charging piles in remote Norway areas.
(Norwegian electric vehicle models (including plug-in hybrids) Number chart: Elbil)
Of course, we also need to add the number of Norway electric vehicles as a reference. As of 2020, the total number of electric vehicles in Norway is about 490,000.
It is obvious that the number of Norwegian public charging piles cannot meet the energy replenishment needs of Norwegian electric vehicles. So it is very simple to introduce it backwards. Norwegians mainly use home charging to achieve the battery life of electric vehicles.
As a developed country, Norway, on the one hand, regional population flow is smaller than that of developing countries and has a relatively lower population density. People usually have their own yards, so it is very suitable for home replenishment as the main method of replenishing energy.
In response to this conjecture, I verified the blogger "Norwegian Lao Wang" on TikTok (you are welcome to list the data to further testify my ideas), and also confirmed my conjecture.
Therefore, the main way for Norwegian people to replenish electric vehicles is to recharge homes, and public charging piles are the perfect experience of replenishing the entire replenishment experience.
drives Norway's special energy base
(Photo source: Clyde Thomas)
What is less well known is that Norway is the world's third largest natural gas exporter, and Norway can meet 20% to 25% of the EU's natural gas demand. Almost all of the oil and natural gas mined in Norway are used for export, and the value generated by oil and gas exports almost tied the total value of all other commodities exported by Norway.
It can be said that one of Norway's economic pillars is the mining and export of fossil fuels.But why doesn't Norway use oil mined directly? Can you say that you get the moon first when you are close to the water? Good quality and cheap?
All this can be traced back to the 1997 EU built an EU carbon emission trading system in order to achieve the emission reduction commitments in the Kyoto Protocol. Simply put, if countries fail to meet the carbon emissions, they will make money if they meet the standards.
. Norway even began to impose carbon taxes in 1991, and the tax rates also match accordingly accordingly. The first thing that bears the tax rate is the oil and natural gas industry, but this forces the local oil and natural gas industry in Norway to seek breakthroughs in production technology and reduce carbon emissions in production. However, oil and gas exports, as one of the pillars of Norway's economic pillars, cannot be eliminated in the short term.
So due to carbon tax pressure and the country's economic demand, Norway will export almost all the exploited fossil energy and allow them to complete "carbon emissions" in other countries.
In this way, the carbon emission problem has been greatly alleviated. But how to solve the energy supply for production and living of Norwegian people?
(Google Map)
This will mention Norway's rich water resources. On the east side of Norway are the Scandinavian Mountains, and on the west side are the Norwegian Sea. The rivers flow from east to west, with a large drop. And affected by the North Atlantic warm current, the annual precipitation is average and the rivers do not freeze in winter.
(Photo source: Will Smith)
On the one hand, Norway has rich hydropower resources to utilize, while on the other hand, due to the suppression of the EU carbon emission trading system rules, hydropower, as the main energy supply method in Norway, has been promoted.
. Norway has oversupply of water and electricity resources in China, and Norway also exports excess electricity to other countries, so Norway's electricity price has formed a low point and has become one of the countries with the lowest electricity prices in the world. According to data from the Norwegian Bureau of Statistics, the current average selling price per kilowatt-hour of electricity in Norway is around 22.2 or so, which is about 0.2 yuan.
Norway's electricity price makes the cost of electric vehicles almost negligible, which is a great benefit to the promotion of electric vehicles. On the other hand, hydropower, as a clean energy, has also helped the Norwegian government achieve its emission reduction target, which can be said to have won multiple goals in one fell swoop.
Norway is not as "cold" as imagined
(Photo source: Vidar Nordli-Mathisen)
Just mentioned that western Norway is affected by the warm current of the North Atlantic Ocean and the east is adjacent to the Scandinavian Mountains. Such unique geographical conditions not only make Norway densely covered with rivers, but also make Norway not as cold as the "extreme circle land" as imagined.
Compared with other areas of the same latitude, the average annual temperature in some areas of Norway is around 10 degrees Celsius, and the temperature difference in winter and summer is not very large. It is rarely as exaggerated as in northern my country, with a few dozen degrees below zero. Of course, there are high altitude areas within the polar circle in the northern Norway.
So, even in the long winter, Norwegian electric vehicles have not lost much battery life and charging efficiency.
Norwegian people have strong consumption capacity
Norwegian economic pillar industries, oil and gas exports, hydropower, seafood, and tourism. Especially oil and gas exports, but as the proven reserves of the North Sea oilfield peaked in 1999, the Norwegian government also began to think about how to transform the economic structure to reduce its dependence on oil and gas.
But at present, the Norwegian people are still very rich. Norway has long ranked second or third in the world (after Luxembourg and Switzerland). Taking 2019 as an example, Norway's per capita GDP is US$75,420. Buying a car and changing it is easier for them.
The people have high environmental awareness
The environmental awareness of Norwegian people is the one I mentioned most when I check the information. Everyone has students who have lived in Norway for a long time to speak freely. But let me say bluntly, I don't think this is the main or fundamental reason for the high position of Norway's electric vehicle market.
Summary
(Photo source: Vlad Tchompalov)
Norwegian electric vehicles have such high penetration rate, and the main reason is actually the government's policy guidance.In addition to some unique advantages, electric vehicles have become the mainstream of the Norwegian automobile market.
At this point, I finally solved the mystery of "Electric Country".
Because of the need for sublimation themes, I have been thinking about the reference significance of the Norwegian case to our country. Aside from Norway's unique advantageous conditions (fossil energy, people's income, and abundant water and electricity), I found that our policies on the increase in road rights of electric vehicles and tax exemption are very similar to those of Norway.
, and thanks to my country's title of "infrastructure maniac", the construction of public fast charging piles has been steadily improved. Coupled with the advantages of the system, the public charging and energy replenishment infrastructure in many electric vehicles in underdeveloped areas is very advanced. This has indeed improved the replenishment experience of electric vehicle travel.
But the problem is that my country has a vast territory and complex terrain, and charging stations are a long-term construction plan. As the recognized best form of energy replenishment, the application of home replenishment in my country is very complicated. This can be learned from the unified layout of home replenishment piles by the Norwegian government in the early stage.
So I think my country's energy replenishment form will also be in a game between domestic charging and public fast charging for a long time.
written at the end
Although I know that the joking saying of "Electric Dad" still exists, I think you should be a firm supporter of the "New Four Modernizations", so please forward it to your friend and tell him that there is a country in the world that has far exceeded that of gasoline cars, and people there drive electric cars every day, and China will surpass it in many dimensions in the future.
