Teslas in Norway [image credit: Norsk Elbilforening (Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association)]
Norway is one of the world’s largest exporters of oil, also of natural gas. Loss of revenue from fuel taxes seems not to be a problem for them, but high demand by car users for electricity at certain times of the day could be. Are other countries ready for such issues?
OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s power grid is likely to need an 11 billion crown ($1.27 billion) upgrade over the next 20 years to meet demand from the country’s growing fleet of electric cars, with consumers likely to have to foot the bill, a study has shown.
Electric car (EV) sales in Norway reached a record-high in March, with almost 60% of new cars sold fully electric, a result of state policy to exclude such vehicles from certain taxes and offer free or cheaper road tolls, parking and charging points.
Aiming to end fossil-fueled car sales by 2025, electric vehicles now account for 220,000 of Norway’s total fleet of 2.7 million cars. It aims to have a mostly carbon-neutral fleet on its roads by 2040.
In a study conducted for Norway’s power regulator with DNV GL, state-appointed consultancy Poyry said a power grid investment of up to 11 billion crowns would be needed by 2040 if most passenger cars were by then powered by electricity and drivers maintained their current charging habits.
“If nothing is done, charging every afternoon to evening seems most likely. In that case, the 11 billion … grid cost is paid by all customers,” Poyry’s Norway director Kjetil Ingeberg told Reuters.
He said that all electricity consumers would face rising costs as a separate EV charging tariff was unlikely.
Full report here.
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CNET: Norway’s love of EVs will force it to spend big bucks on its electric grid, report says
‘The problem that EV charging is creating in Norway foreshadows the problems we could have in the US, but on a much larger scale.’
Talkshop note: the population of Norway is around 5.4 million.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Reblogged this on Climate- Science.
‘I drive in the bus lane’
24 May 2019
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48400271
That won’t work if every car is an EV 😐
What are they going to do with all the useless car batteries in a few years – which landfill will they use? I assume no one thought about that.
How will Norway generate that extra electricity needed? They are (roughly) 98% hydro but that is
run-of-river and could run into problems with reduced rainfall as they have no storage and no pumped storage capacity. With increasing demand from Europe for backup for their (intermittent) wind turbines and there are even (renewables enthusiasts) in the UK wanting to draw from that source as well.
The brackets are for euphemisms.
How will Norway generate that extra electricity needed?
Probably wind power from elsewhere in Europe e.g. Denmark. When it’s not windy? Bad luck Norway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Norway#Electricity_generation
“It aims to have a mostly carbon-neutral fleet on its roads by 2040.”
another inadvertently revealing of the stupidity of greens. Disregarding the ‘carbon cost’ of making the vehicles and their world polluting batteries and motors (rare earths anyone?), as others have noted, just where the heck do they think the electricity is going to come from, unicorn farts driving windmills?
Then there’s the hypocrisy of doing all this stupid ‘electric’ stuff while continuing to finance it all (along with their welfare) with the sales of huge amounts of oil and gas from the North Sea wells. “Pay no attention to the CO2 behind the curtain!”
“How will Norway generate that extra electricity needed? ”
Norway’s electricity comes mainly from waterfalls, and some from rivers. In addition, large windpower projects are now underway, but these are very controversial, and will in any case not be needed for our supply of power. Norway can easily get all it needs of new power by simply renewing and upgrading old hydro-electric installations. This will not cause any further damage to nature, but is it not as trendy or “climate-saving” as windpower, however, this latent resource should be used. With a bit of energy-saving in addition, we can supply the needed power for EVs.
If this is a sensible policy, however, is more of an open question. The construction of new roads, tunnels and bridges are generally dependent on at least 50% toll financing, while the EVs pay nothing. This must change, or such projects will not be built. The EV frenzy is likely to die down when the huge advantages disappear. Saving the climate can’t compete with saving money.
I’m not knowledgeable here. But for anyone who is, would it be possible to embed conductors in a roadway that would allow a vehicle to pick up enough power to keep going by electromagnetic induction?
pochas – the Swedes were looking at something a bit like that…
So in Norway the poor who can’t afford a car will subsidise those who can afford a car.
All car owners with non-electric cars are also subsidising the EV crowd in running costs.
The electric version is also a lot cheaper to run, with annual charging costs averaging £264 against an average £1,293 on petrol. Electric cars are exempt from widespread road tolls, saving owners around £1,319 a year, and road-tax savings bring in another £267. Overall, an e-Golf is more than £3,000 a year cheaper to run, says Figenbaum. “The same situation is found in most vehicle classes with the exception of the smallest petrol cars, where registration tax is very low.”
. . .
GoCompare.com’s Matt Oliver says that as electric cars are more expensive to buy* and repair “claims are likely to be more expensive, so insurance costs more”. [*pre-subsidy at least]
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jul/02/norway-electric-cars-subsidies-fossil-fuel
EV depreciation might be steeper than fuel cars due to battery fade.
We need to get some real figures for battery fade and windmill deterioration.
CLIMATE CHANGE POLICIES THREATEN MILLIONS OF CAR WORKERS WORLDWIDE
Date: 07/06/19 The New York Times
Worldwide, eight million people work directly for auto manufacturers, and many times more work for companies that supply brakes, tires, sensors and other components. Those jobs are now threatened.
. . .
By some estimates, half of all auto industry jobs in Germany are at risk. Battery-powered cars have far fewer parts than cars reliant on gasoline or diesel, endangering suppliers of valves, pistons and other parts in conventional engines. The most important part of an electric car, the battery cells, usually comes from Asia.
https://www.thegwpf.com/climate-change-targets-threaten-millions-of-car-workers-worldwide/
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At least the job losses will help ‘save the climate’ – or so the script goes
I will never buy an electric car.
I would rather walk.
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