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Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#11

Post by sandworm101 »

One very small part of the arctic circle. That title is appropriate once electric cars are popular in the northern regions of canada and russia, who are by far the largest occupiers of the arctic.

Some data: It looks like the leaf's range is basically halved in cold weather. That, and the greater distances between everything in the true north, says to me that they are a long way from adoption.

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1087587_what-does-it-tak...

Fyi, running the heater on a gas-powered car does nothing to the range. That heat comes from engine coolant. You are doing the engine a favor, something to remember if your engine is overheating.

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#12

Post by 1024core »

I was feeling all good for Norway, till I read this:

> It helps that Norway is also the biggest oil producer in Western Europe and the world's third largest exporter of natural gas.

Hmmm.... You know what would really help the environment, Norway? If you stopped drilling all that oil and gas. Your measly consumption of gas isn't the problem; your mega export of oil is.

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#13

Post by dang »

sandworm101 wrote: post #11

One very small part of the arctic circle. That title is appropriate once electric cars are popular in the northern regions of canada and russia, who are by far the largest occupiers of the arctic. Some data: It looks like the leaf's range is basically halved in cold weather. That, and the greater distances between everything in the true north, says to me that they are a long way from adoption. http://www.greencarrepo…

> One very small part of the arctic circle.

Ok, we replaced "the article circle" with "Tromsø" in the title above. That should narrow it down a bit :)

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#14

Post by sandworm101 »

dang wrote: post #13
sandworm101 wrote: post #11

One very small part of the arctic circle. That title is appropriate once electric cars are popular in the northern regions of canada and russia, who are by far the largest occupiers of the arctic. Some data: It looks like the leaf's range is basically halved in cold weather. That, and the greater distances between everything in the true north, says to me that they are a long way from adoption. http://www.greencarrepo…

> One very small part of the arctic circle. Ok, we replaced "the article circle" with "Tromsø" in the title above. That should narrow it down a bit :)

cc. For map geeks, another slight error by the BBC was that the circle isn't an area but a line. Nobody lives on the circle. The normal phrase is 'above the arctic circle' or just 'in the arctic'. Canada has "the north" which is actually an official thing for tax purposes (extra deductions for the higher cost of living).

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#15

Post by Gibbon1 »

stevenrace wrote: post #9
beloch wrote: post #4

I wonder how well EV's cope with arctic conditions. In areas near the ocean temperatures generally don't get too extreme (e.g. Anchorage), but inland they can easily get into ranges that must be challenging for batteries to cope with.

To mitigate issues with cold weather, 2nd generation Nissan Leaf battery packs with the 'cold weather package' include a 'battery warmer' between banks. This is controlled via the BMS which was already monitoring temperature with some thermistors. It's a resistive element like that used in heated seats or an electric blanket. The Tesla battery is a liquid cooled battery and thus can be warmed via coolant that is heat…

I was also wondering about two things I've heard they have in northern climes called heated garages and engine block warmers[1]. I assume if one were charging a batter one could also divert some power to keep it warm. Lowered range aside one bonus of an electric car in cold climates is they'll probably start.

[1] As a Californian these things frighten and confuse me.

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#16

Post by cachvico »

dang wrote: post #13
sandworm101 wrote: post #11

One very small part of the arctic circle. That title is appropriate once electric cars are popular in the northern regions of canada and russia, who are by far the largest occupiers of the arctic. Some data: It looks like the leaf's range is basically halved in cold weather. That, and the greater distances between everything in the true north, says to me that they are a long way from adoption. http://www.greencarrepo…

> One very small part of the arctic circle. Ok, we replaced "the article circle" with "Tromsø" in the title above. That should narrow it down a bit :)

It's still not accurate. The article states they love electric cars in Oslo (30% adoption), but in Tromsø adoption is more muted because of the range problem. "Norway" would be the most representative title.

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#17

Post by dang »

cachvico wrote: post #16
dang wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One very small part of the arctic circle. Ok, we replaced "the article circle" with "Tromsø" in the title above. That should narrow it down a bit :)

It's still not accurate. The article states they love electric cars in Oslo (30% adoption), but in Tromsø adoption is more muted because of the range problem. "Norway" would be the most representative title.

Oh, ok, but it's not nearly as fun. How often do we get to say Tromsø?

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#18

Post by laurencerowe »

1024core wrote: post #12

I was feeling all good for Norway, till I read this: > It helps that Norway is also the biggest oil producer in Western Europe and the world's third largest exporter of natural gas. Hmmm.... You know what would really help the environment, Norway? If you stopped drilling all that oil and gas. Your measly consumption of gas isn't the problem; your mega export of oil is.

It's not that simple. Natural gas emits around half the CO2 of coal per GWh. It really depends on what it's substituted with.

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#19

Post by e12e »

sandworm101 wrote: post #11

One very small part of the arctic circle. That title is appropriate once electric cars are popular in the northern regions of canada and russia, who are by far the largest occupiers of the arctic. Some data: It looks like the leaf's range is basically halved in cold weather. That, and the greater distances between everything in the true north, says to me that they are a long way from adoption. http://www.greencarrepo…

> One very small part of the arctic circle.

I'm not sure where you get that from. I suppose you mean that there are areas in Canada that are as cold, and have a larger population - but not, as far as I know, as far north:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Circle#Human_habitation

"The largest communities north of the Arctic Circle are situated in Russia and Norway: Murmansk (population 307,257), Norilsk (175,365), Tromsø (71,295) and Vorkuta (70,548). Rovaniemi (61,329) in Finland is the largest settlement in the immediate vicinity of the Arctic Circle lying slightly south of the line.

In contrast, the largest North American community north of the Arctic Circle, Sisimiut (Greenland), has approximately 5,000 inhabitants. Of the Canadian and United States Arctic communities, Barrow, Alaska is the largest settlement with about 4,000 inhabitants."

Tromsø has a relatively mild climate (record cold temperature in winter is ~ -18C, "usual" coldest days of January and February are around -10C). The north of Finland is much colder in winter due to being away from the warm ocean currents, as is inland Norway.

(Source: I grew up in Tromsø, and worked for a while as a city guide before I moved south to Bergen)

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#20

Post by e12e »

LoSboccacc wrote: post #2

So basically it's incentives, inventives and incentives on top of incentives. Wouldn't call that love but hey whatever it's still a good result, right?

Yes, a lot of incentives. But another important point is that they make some sense, due to the pervasiveness of renewable hydroelectric power in Norway. Being an oil producing country, we could have gone the other way, and just subsidized gasoline prices instead.
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